Transsiberian
The long sidelined subgenre centered on mysterious doings aboard exotic trains is put back on the tracks in "Transsiberian," an engagingly up-to-date melodrama steeped in local color and steered by a treacherous sense of morality. Stalwart indie helmer Brad Anderson spreads his wings considerably here by moving further into action and genre territory than he ever has before with a film that will likely achieve more theatrical traction internationally than in the U.S. but looks promising everywhere at tube and home viewing destinations down the line.
One of the most famous train routes in the world, the Transsiberian links Beijing and Moscow with 7865 kilometers of track for a journey that requires a week to complete. It's a trip Anderson took after studying Russian in college in the late '80s, and one embarked upon herein by two Yanks, married couple Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer), after having put in a church-sponsored stint helping children in China. . . .
Usually seen in appealing if limited secondary leads, Mortimer is blessed with the only fully developed character here and runs with it in a very flavorful performance as a reformed bad girl presented with a whopping opportunity to backslide. If the other characters, especially that of her husband, had been similarly filled out, "Transsiberian" could have been even more complex and compelling. . . .
Todd McCarthy, Variety, January 19

I remember spying the trailer here a few months ago, and it's still there. Some possibly spoiler-ish stuff in the trailer, and it's an international trailer, so there's a bit of language and sexual stuff in it.

Looks interesting. I've seen three Anderson movies (the Machinist, Session 9 and Happy Accidents); I've liked all of them, but not loved any. He's a director with talent, though, so I think he has at least one great film in him.

Oh, wow, I'd forgotten he was the guy behind those films. (I haven't seen Happy Accidents, but I did see Next Stop Wonderland.) Very well, then:

Link to our thread on The Machinist (2004).

It's a good enough thriller. I have a hard time buying Woody Harrelson in a non-comedy role (thought he was miscast in No Country for Old Men, too.) The twist I was waiting for but never happened (getting Harrelson's character involved in the drug running somehow) left me wondering why not?

Leans a bit toward the pragmatic ethics - not even situation ethics, just what will get me through this trouble.

The film is well-done. I thought Woody Harrelson was pretty good, it seemed like he was coming full circle in his career, doing a character that hearkened back to the "aw-shucks" affability of Woody Boyd from Cheers. Emily Mortimer was very effective as portraying someone trapped: lost in an unfamiliar culture with a language barrier, entangled by her own past of immoral behavior, and increasing tangled in the web of decisions and compounding moral compromises.