Pun Salad

A decent thriller set in an exotic, mostly white, locale. Pretty much an anti-advertisement for anyone tempted to travel the Trans-Siberian Railway. While the scenery is picturesque, and your fellow travelers (heh) are colorful, the employees are surly, and you (still) don't want to run afoul of the authorities.

Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer play Roy and Jessie, an Iowa couple, returning from mission work in China via rail through Siberia to Moscow. They immediately befriend Abby and Carlos, a decision that bodes ill for them. Meanwhile, in Vladivostok, Russian law-enforcement agent Grinko (Ben Kingsley) peruses the frozen corpse of a drug smuggler, a knife protruding from the back of his neck. Will this impact Roy and Jessie? You betcha.

While I enjoyed it, it could have been tighter. Without spoiling it too much: a character goes missing at one point, just after we've seen another character act in what might be construed as a surreptitiously menacing manner. I was sure that portended something, but … it didn't, really.