Transsiberian

Transsiberian starring Emily Mortimer, Woody Harrelson, and Ben Kingsley.

This one completely eluded me this year. I had not even heard of it until I was poking around on Amazon's Video on Demand last night for a last minute diversion. Just couldn't face the end of the long weekend.

It's also available for FREE (which I found out too late) from Netflix's Watch Instantly feature, if you get that.

It's very Hitchcock - Jessie and Roy, travelling to Moscow on the Transsiberian Railroad meet Abby and Carlos. Jessie (Emily Mortimer) becomes suspicious of the other couple for various reasons. Roy, distracted by the excitement of the trip and the trains, is distracted. He's also a bit naive. A chain of events lead to a dangerous situation. Is that vague enough? I don't want to give away one minute of this film, it's that good: very well paced and the performances are excellent. Where has this movie been?

Having been burned way too many times in recent weeks, I checked Rotten Tomatoes where it got a 7.1 out of 10 rating. It's a good way to spend a couple of hours.

Emily Mortimer is becoming one of my favorite actresses. I loved her in
Lars and the Real Girl and another independent film, Dear Frankie. I think she's just terrific, and always gives a solid performance. She has a great quality about her - a little fragile, but steely underneath, if that makes sense. She's pretty without being fanatically beautiful.

Transsiberian was refreshing after subjecting myself to The Strangers, Eastern Promises, and Death Sentence (I'm not even going to bother linking to them).

ARGH. Got to get myself motivated to get dressed for work!