Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer play a naïve, generic, overly trusting American couple on a voyage across Asia in this bleak, troubling thriller. During their week-long ride on the tracks of the Trans Siberian Railway, they quickly fall in with some shady characters and methodically dig themselves into a deep, dark hole. Harrelson is overly optimistic, single minded and simple, like a railroad-obsessed slant on his character from Cheers, while Mortimer's guarded introvert tries to relive her rebellious younger years via a series of increasingly forehead-smacking decisions.

Those missteps effectively fuel the plot, though, and quietly build to a hectic, frightening climax amidst the desolate Russian snow drifts. Tense, foreboding and nasty, it's often very tough to look past the female lead's idiotic judgment. All the same, I caught myself holding my breath in suspense more than once. Effective at what it sets out to do, though it's frequently predictable; not something I'll need to watch over and over again.