If a movie puts two strangers together in a new city, or en route to one, two words tend to come up in comparison. They are: “before” and “sunrise,” thanks to the first, Vienna-set meetup in Richard Linklater’s trilogy starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Or “brief” and “encounter,” if it’s exquisitely thwarted British ardor.
There are countless variations to be discovered among the bare bones of this kind of story. The bracing success of the new film “Compartment No. 6″ proves it. It’s tough-minded and tender-hearted in equal measure. It’s also slyly insightful on the theme of chance elements in solo travel, and unexpected, emotionally tricky connections along the way.
Director and co-screenwriter Juho Kuosmanen adapts, loosely, the 2011 Rosa Liksom novel, relocating the destination from Mongolia to northwestern-most Russia. Laura, a Finnish archeology student, is traveling to the icy port city of Murmansk, north of the Arctic Circle, to see some recently discovered petroglyphs. The trip wasn’t supposed to be for one: Her sometime Moscow lover Irina, whom we meet in early scenes at a cocktail party where the student feels conspicuously ill at ease, has contrived some airy reason not to go after all.
Laura’s sleeping compartment mate is an itinerant Russian miner, heading to Murmansk for work. He’s three-quarters in the bag when he and Laura meet; he makes a drunken, crude play for her, assuming she’s heading north to turn tricks. Is this is a threatening situation for Laura? No. Yes. Maybe? Is this boor dangerous or lonely or both?
There’s not a lot of overt judgement in “Compartment No. 6,” which may strike many American viewers as a deficiency, not a plus. After an unsuccessful bid to change compartments — the stern conductor proves un-bribable — Laura decides she can, and apparently must, put up with this guy, Ljoha. In a lurching sort of way they come to know each other. A friendly-looking Finnish man, lugging a guitar, joins them for a time, and Ljoha does not like this interloper.
As the train makes its extended stops in St. Petersburg, and other cities, Laura gradually realizes that she may have been wrong about the miner in the lower berth. “You think I’m a bad guy?” he asks her at one point.
“Well,” she answers, pausing. “I only know what I’ve seen.”
That’s a really good line, seriocomic in an easy, truthful way, and that’s the film all over. Kuosmanen shot “Compartment No. 6″ with a tiny crew in cramped spaces, and you can practically smell the matted hair, the jars of pickles, the physical details of a long train trip. Laura films a lot of moments on that trip, just as she did in Moscow earlier. What did she capture there, Ljoha wonders? “People. Parties. Flats. Laughter. Music. … I loved it all.” She’s talking about the idea of her fading lover, and Moscow, more than the everyday reality. But Laura is at a time in her life, as is Ljoha, when life is all about the sorting-through and wandering — the messy accumulation of feelings, impressions, yearnings.
This micro-cast of actors couldn’t be better. Seidi Haarla’s plaintive Laura offers a wealth of intricate emotion, never forcing the pathos or a comic reaction, always illuminating the character’s inner life. As the edgy miner, bullet-headed Yuriy Borisov manages a challenging (and not entirely convincing, on the page) transition from overt lout to something more nuanced. There are other actors, other characters, but “Compartment No. 6″ belongs to these two. The movie’s not about movie-fed romantic love; as the director has said, it’s more of a fractious long-lost siblings sort of connection, though not entirely.
However you take it, it’s a small but sure triumph.
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‘COMPARTMENT NO. 6′
3.5 stars (out of 4)
In Russian and Finnish with English subtitles
MPAA rating: R (for language and some sexual references)
Running time: 1:47
Where to watch: Now playing in theaters
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