IMDB
What I like the most about Transsiberian how the plot can twist and turn and keep making your guess the wrong thing. I guess I like to be fooled by a movie? Well, only the one with smart stories, like this one.
Okay, this is not the best thriller movie I’ve seen, but it could be the best one I’ve seen this year (I planned also to see Tell No One, and many people believes that THIS is the number one thriller of the year).
I also always fascinated when they use train as their main setting of the movie. Maybe because I like road trip and plan to have one on my own one day? (of course, I hope things that happened here won’t ever happen to me).
On a beginning we met this Russian detective, Grinko, played by Ben Kingsley, who already played characters from all over the world all his life. He was doing investigation about drugs trafficking gone wrong that later explained often happen in that country and it’s surrounding.
Then we meet this young couple, Roy and Jessie Nassir, played by Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer. They were just done from their humanitarian work at China after their church send send them there. It doesn’t really explain that much, but I assumed that Roy probably the religious one since Emily once referred the church as “Roy’s church”, although she corrected it right away into “our church”.
The beginning seemed more like introduction to the main characters. Roy seemed like a positive kind of person, nice and a bit naive as well. Jessie, in other hand, still trying to get rid off her bad past that seemed still effect her. We learned that she wasn’t really a “good” girl until she met Roy.
Roy wanted to have kids, Jessie wasn’t sure yet, and that seemed started to create problems between them.
Then meet another young couple, Carlos and Abby. They soon became “friends”, although Abby seemed doesn’t like on how Carlos interact with Jessie. My mind started to form on how the story is gonna turn out, that Carlos and Abby are gonna be the bad guy while Jessie and Roy will try to defeat them, they have their happy ending and Jessie finally wanted to have kids. Not it isn’t simple as that!
The story keep changing and made you’re guessing all wrong! For a start, Roy accidentally missing his train. So, then I thought the story is gonna about how Jessie trying to find him. The worst part, Roy could be have been killed. I guessed that the the bad guys prefer to use her as their “drug” carrier instead, although I think the “drug” story was only gonna be background of the main story which is FINDING Roy. Of course later I learned that I WAS so totally wrong.
Like I said before, the story kept changing but in a very good way (I don’t mean good things happen to the characters, but to how they carried the story). It has the aspect like most thriller have. The one that seemed good not always the good one or vice versa. As for me, I kept changing my mind on who I root for. The one that you think might be the hero could turn into bad one. It isn’t in a confusing way, in fact it was pretty easy too follow but still can make you think that this is a SMART movie (*)
Never Forever
(Vera Farmiga Online) http://vera-farmiga.com
Oscar for Vera Farmiga! That’s the kind of thing that I’d like to see happening in the next Academy Award celebration next year.
Who is Farmiga anyway? No one really knows her, really. Especially the one who only watching mainstream movies. She’s not as big as Kate Blanchett or Nicole Kidman, but I am confident to say that she’s on her way and they better watch out.
I know her (not personally) when I watched Autumn In New York where she played as Richard Gere’s daughter. I didn’t really impress at that time but mostly because the story wasn’t really focus on her. But I knew that she had this unique looking especially her eyes that seemed so mysterious.
Then I saw her again in The Departed. It’s not really a big role and she was overshadowed by all the male cast, so again I just forgot anything about her.
Until I saw Never Forever.
Farmiga starred at this young woman named Sophie who married to American Korean Andrew Lee (David McInnis). Andrew coming from a religious Christian family and just like in many traditional Asian family, that when you were married, your whole family expecting you to have children. It didn’t really explain in the movie that way but that is my conclusion only for also grow up in Asian culture.
To make long story short, we soon learned that Andrew was depressed. Was that because of the reason they might won’t ever have kids? Again, it didn’t explore that well, but Sophie, the wife seemed thinking that brought a kid in their life might changed their marriage, or shall I say would bring the happiness in her husband that she loved dearly. She thought that if he was happy then she would too.
The suicidal attempt by her husband get her to the phase where she MUST have baby or she will lose him forever. But how? Seemed the husband was already given up on that idea. He seemed has given up life too.
In her depress and last attempt to have a baby, Sophie comes up with the crazy idea to have OTHER man slept with her and hopefully get her pregnant. She met this Korean man by accident in a clinic when he tried to sell his sperm.
The guy, Jihah (Jung-woo Ha), is an illegal immigrant who was trying to save money so he could bring his Korean girlfriend to the States. Seemed like a perfect target. Sophie told him what she wanted and he agreed. So, it should be pure physical with no emotional involved and that was really their intention.
Sophie FINALLY pregnant. Just like she hoped for, Andrew’s attitude changed. He WAS happy now and seemed like they were gonna get their marriage back.
The story started strong from the beginning, however it started to get weaker after Sophie learned that she got pregnant. However, I can’t really said that without spoil too much. I can only said that the whole idea of having other man as the biological father of the baby was interesting but then later the half part of the movie becomes too “Unfaithful” kind of style.
But the reason to keep watching is of course the wonderful performance by Vera Farmiga. So, it might getting weak but still worth to watch her and I can’t wait to see her more in the future.
EDIT : I learned that this movie is actually distributed on 2007, so I didn’t really understand how Academy Award choose their contendents (is it the right word, anyway?). So, maybe Farmiga already got ignored anyway? I don’t know (*)
