Two older men towards the end of their lives, meet, become friends of a sort, and part. Not the usual cheerer-upper for the Multiplex, but a thoughtful, intimate and often strange film from quirky director Patrice Lecomte; many of the reviews you may read use the word melancholy, and it is that--but in its careful observation of the habits and haunts of these men, it is also quietly funny, from the obvious parody of Spaghetti Westerns transferred to a moribund French village, to the purveyor of baguettes who always queries if " there be anything else?"
Man On The Train is a film about friendship, about the value we put on our lives, about last minute regrets, about a lot more than the sound of the train on tracks that frequently haunts the film, mixing with a muted, mysterious soundtrack. Like Lecomte's quietly observant and haunting "The Hairdresser's Husband," this is an oddity whose difference makes it memorable viewing.
Man On The Train is a film about friendship, about the value we put on our lives, about last minute regrets, about a lot more than the sound of the train on tracks that frequently haunts the film, mixing with a muted, mysterious soundtrack. Like Lecomte's quietly observant and haunting "The Hairdresser's Husband," this is an oddity whose difference makes it memorable viewing.