a review by Jeffrey Overstreet
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Paramount Classics presents a film directed by Patrice Leconte. Written by Claude Klotz. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated R (for some language and brief violence). In French with English subtitles.
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A few years ago, director Patrice Leconte won raves for Girl on the Bridge, the tale of two unusual characters-a desperate and devastated young woman and a grizzled, world-weary knife-thrower-who met each other by chance, bringing new opportunity and excitement to otherwise troubled lives. In the beautiful redemption parable The Widow of St. Pierre, a military officer’s wife took pity on a convicted killer, and what seemed a case of difficult justice led to a relationship of grace and tragedy.
Another chance meeting sets things in motion in Leconte’s new film, Man on the Train. This time, an unlikely friendship forms between Manesquier, a retired poetry teacher, and Milan, a bank robber. Curiously enough, they get to know each other because one of them has purchased the local drug store’s last bottle of aspirin, but both of them are in need of some pain relief.
This is only the first of many small details that reveal deeper truths about the characters.
The rest of the film is a brilliant demonstration of subtle and revealing characterization. Both the poet and the thief sense an opportunity, one longing for some rest after a life on the run, the other longing for adventure after a life of restraint.
Like Steven Soderbergh did in The Limey, Leconte frames his story in close-up and uses a palette of cold blues and the colors of dusty old museums. But there is warmth, mystery, and surprise in the performances.
The great Jean Rochefort (The Hairdresser’s Husband, Lost in La Mancha), going strong at 72, plays Manesquier like an affable old hound dog who dreams of running and hunting under the night sky. He’s a joy to watch. For years he has been an expert on the finer points of poetry and how to identify a good pair of slippers. Now he has a pistol in his hand and Milan is teaching him to shoot. Eager to begin again,
Manesquier goes to his barber and demands a drastic change, a look that is “halfway between just out of prison and world-class soccer star.” (Fans of Leconte will recognize the barber and the situation as a reference to Leconte’s enchanting and acclaimed film The Hairdresser’s Husband.)
The bank robber, on the other hand, is an expert at shooting bank guards and savoring cognac, but he doesn’t mind the idea of wearing slippers for a while. Johnny Hallyday, whose music career has earned him the nickname “the French Elvis”, plays the thief as a grizzled and battlescarred old wolf, staring at the world with cold blue eyes, silent and yet fiercely attentive. What he lacks in human kindness he makes up for in curt, keen, sometimes painful observations about human nature.
Intrigued by each others’ lives and experiences, these two forge a tentative, sometimes even tender, friendship, and contemplate the idea of switching lives. The idea seems urgently appealing, especially as each of them approaches a momentous event: the thief-a bank robbery; the teacher-open heart surgery.
Anyone who appreciates good acting will find Man on the Train to be immensely satisfying. You get the feeling you are watching the adaptation of a classic novel, when in fact the script is an original work of impressive poetry and unpredictable dialogue by Claude Klotz, based on an idea Leconte dreamed up himself. There are moments of deep sadness and regret, flashes of discovery and joy, and intriguing What if? inquiries throughout the film.
Most of us have wondered what it would be like to walk away from our baggage-heavy identities and begin a new life. But this film is not so much about abandoning responsibilities as it is the desire to live life more fully. While both characters lived flawed and unsatisfactory lives, they do have subtle virtues, and they can offer each other fragments of insight from their narrow perspectives and differing experiences.
The conclusion will have you talking with each other as you leave the theatre, wondering if the film concludes with wish-fulfillment, or merely wishful thinking. Either way, it’s a film worth seeing more than once.