"Transsiberian" **1/2 (out of four): Modest thriller set aboard the titular train plays like low-suspense Hitchcock until sadly, in the last act, it derails.

Ah, train travel. Nothing sparks suspense like being trapped with perfect strangers in a claustrophobic tube hurtling through anonymous and unfamiliar terrain. From Hitchcock ("The Lady Vanishes", "Strangers on a Train") to Bond ("From Russia with Love", "The Spy who Loved Me"), from Agatha Christie ("Murder on the Orient Express") to Gene Wilder ("Silver Streak"), filmmakers and authors alike have set their sinister plots on rails, with varying degrees of success (lest we forget "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory"), since man first laid down tracks. And now "Transsiberian", a modest thriller from director Brad Anderson, puts the formula to good use by setting the action aboard the titular Russian-Chinese train line and populating it with some wildly surly locals (the Transsiberian tourism bureau is not likely to be happy about this one).

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