The Film
What is it about trains that inspire stories of intrigue? In director Brad Anderson's Transsiberian, there's certainly plenty of it to go around. Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer play Roy and Jessie, a married, Christian missionary couple returning from charity work in China who opt to head back to the west on the famed Trans-Siberian railway, that stretches 5,000 miles from Beijing to Moscow. On their trip they meet another couple, the immediately suspicious Spaniard Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and his U.S. girlfriend Abby (Kate Mara) who become their cabin mates. Ben Kingsley also comes aboard as Russian narcotics detective Grinko, tracking heroin drug mules who may or may not be Carlos and Abby.
This is the sort of film that is impossible to describe in detail without giving too much away, so let me just say this, from the very beginning, Transsiberian plunges the viewer into a claustrophobic world of violence and suspicion. Even the lighting and pale color palette cast a pall over the proceedings acting almost like a third character. It's a world where, ultimately, nothing is as it appears. From the time he steps on the train Ben Kingsley, putting in a typically strong performance, alerts the viewer that something is going to go awry, but just what that may be is part of the thrill. Woody Harrelson also feels truly believable as a hapless U.S. tourist and Emily Mortimer does a wonderful job portraying Jessie, a seemingly good girl with a past she wants to hide.
For an alternate take on the film see our theatrical review of Transsiberian.
The Picture
Transsiberian's palette is one of purposely-subdued colors, with a bluish-grey tinge that captures that cold, detached, wintry feeling of Russia's Siberian tundra. This Blu-ray Disc's 1080p/24 VC-1 encoding averaging 25Mbps captures the look and feel of the film with amazing detail, from the condensation of breath in the cold air to the brilliance of the pure white snow on the ground. Blacks and contrast are set superbly, with no crushing or blooming noticeable and the film's fine grain structure is present in its unsullied source. This is a marvelously rendered transfer on Blu-ray.
The Sound
Unfortunately, Transsiberian does not offer a high-quality audio option to go with its stellar video transfer. This release comes with only English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 audio options. There is no lossless or uncompressed audio option provided. The lossy 5.1 encoding is mostly adequate for the film's soundtrack, which is mainly dialogue driven. The Dolby Digital encoding does show its limitations, however, in the sequences where the score rises and at the film's climax where there are loud sound effects that sound a bit closed-in with grating high frequencies. The dialogue is always clear, though, perhaps, not quite as full and lifelike as it could have been had a lossless option been provided.
The Extras
Transsiberian's supplements are meager in their scope, limited to only a "making-of" featurette that feels very promotional and previews for four more First Look releases (4:3/standard definition):
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