Rating: 
Summary: A small, slight masterpiece
Review: Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort are superb in what is for all intents and purposes a two-person movie. But between those two, what drama! And comedy!! You'll laugh at some very smart and well-staged moments crafted by director Patrice Leconte.Hallyway - face weathered (and perhaps somewhat distorted from plastic surgery) - is career criminal Milan. Rochefort - slight and sedantary - is retired linguistics teacher Manesquier. Through chance meeting, their lives cross. Each slowly admires the other's life choices: - Manesquier takes a stealthy turn as Wyatt Earp in Milan's leather jacket - Milan tries on slippers for the first time - Manesquier fires Milan's pistol - Milan gives a surprised boy his weekly Balzac lesson The ending threw me for a loop. After 85 minutes or so of life in a small French city, the last five minutes can catch you off guard. What is Leconte doing here? Are the characters actually...???(don't want to reveal here). Unlike "Swimming Pool," you get it sorted out pretty quickly. It's a shocking but satisfying ending. I can't recommend this movie highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: A minor gem
Review: Like many French films, this one draws in many timeless themes. The Road Not Taken
We have the issue of the road not taken - the question 'What if?' hangs over both the main characters from start to finish. Manesquier has led a comfortable if not entirely satisfying life for half a century in a quiet village. However, he has his dreams, dreams of action. Milan perhaps didn't dream of much until he saw that stability was possible - there were places in the world where doors were left unlocked, and strangers were welcomed. Opposites Attract
There is also the issue of opposites attracting, and the basic feature of human nature of wanting what we don't have - the-grass-is-always-greener syndrome. Manesquier is intrigued by the mysterious drifter Milan; the more he learns, the more eager he is to adopt his recklessness. Manesquier, on the other hand, has stability and subtle concerns that Milan has not experienced, and which provide a tempting sweetness. The poem Manesquier is teaching his young charge near the beginning of the film warns against complacency in sweetness; Milan understands this, even has he adopts Manesquier's lifestyle so thoroughly as to become the new tutor to the student. The Odd Couple
Manesquier and Milan are a classic odd couple. One is educated, the other is not. However, the uneducated Milan is not unintelligent, and has a poet's soul. The perhaps-overeducated Manesquier, on the other hand, longs for the recklessness of a cowboy who fires pistols and dresses in leather jackets with fringe. Manesquier teaches Milan to eat proper meals and look for deeper meanings in feelings and poetry; Milan gives Manesquier the experience of firing a handgun, plotting a bank robbery (which Manesquier confesses has been a fantasy for 30 years) and expressing his true feelings toward others. Little Things Mean A Lot
Manesquier is taken by little things in Milan's behaviour and being. Milan is mysterious, a great change from the changeless pattern of life in the sleepy provincial French village. His leather jacket, his ability to swig cognac, even his vocal patterns - these intrigue Manesquier. The simple things of Manesquier's life - wearing slippers, having a bath, smoking a pipe - are beyond Milan's tempestuous existence, and Milan yearns for more normalcy. The More Things Change...
At the start of the film, one can be forgiven for believing that Manesquier is the coward, the one resistant or even afraid of change. Yet we come to understand also that Milan, the drifter, the thief, the impervious one, is also afraid to change, even when it is offered freely, as in Manesquier's offer of money instead of the robbery. Milan rejects it. He is as trapped by his life as is the poet Manesquier; ironically, one comes to see that Manesquier is more open to change - his scene in the restaurant attempting to start a fight attests to this, but the courage to change has come late in life, perhaps too late. Manesquier is very brave to take in the stranger Milan in the first place, the first indication that he's ready to change. Yet, things remain the same. Even as Milan and Manesquier grasp aspects of each other's lives (such as Milan shaving his goatee to look more like Manesquier, and Manesquier getting a haircut to look like Milan), things remain the same. The Essence of French Cinema
It is almost essential to the best of French films that they have enigmatic endings, and this film fulfills that task. Do Manesquier and Milan trade places or not? Both are grasping at hope that seems to be embodied in the other, but neither quite attainable. The cinematography is a bit grainy and dark, just as the cloud hanging over the characters is likewise grainy and dark. The sets are perfect accompaniment to the characters - tattered elegance for the poet, and stark plain-ness for the drifter. Manesquier is performed by Jean Rochefort, and Milan is performed by Johnny Hallyday, who give perfectly complementary performances, establishing their own identities and then losing them in each other quickly as the drama progresses. Not much of physical substance happens in the film until near the end; rather, the change is spiritual and psychological, with most of the 'action' taking place in conversation and nuanced scenes of metamorphosis. Director Patrice Leconte has produced a minor gem here.
Rating:
Summary: Duet for Actors
Review: MAN ON THE TRAIN is a minor miracle of a film. The quiet story of how two wholly opposite aging men meet, interact, exchange philosophies, and mutate because of a simple chance meeting is not only fine writing, it is also a virtuoso turn for the talents of Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday. Rochefort is a loquacious, bored, congenial poetry teacher in semi-retirement, a man who not only loves to talk about Schumann but plays Schumann on his piano in his very old and boring house - and reads and readies himself for a weekend surgery. Hallyday (a dark, sinister long term burglar) stops off the train in Rochefort's village, meets the talkative Rochefort and ends up taking up residence with him. Their interactions, soliloquies, shared meals, and exchanges on walks all prove mutually enlightening. The ending is so dear that to place it in a review would be a crime (!). Once again Patrice Leconte proves that the French "own" cinema when it comes to intimate and delicate stories. A brilliant duet for two phenomenal actors.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been great.
Review: Man on the Train is a slow moving French movie about two men from different worlds whose lives cross one day in a pharmacy. The movie fails on several levels to invoke any interest for these two dull underdeveloped characters.
In a sleepy provincial French town, a drifter exits a train and walks into a pharmacy looking for aspirin. The man's behavior and demeaner invokes images of Charles Bronson from the Deathwish movies, quiet, introverted, stoic, but intensely aware. On the way out he is approached by an older man who is his opposite; gregarious, extroverted, and obviously looking to make a friend. Our drifter, Milan, is played by French rock and roll legend Johnny Hallyday. The old man, Manesquier is played by another French icon, Jean Rochefort, a man with over 5 decades in French film.
Manesquier invites Milan over to get some water to wash down his aspirin. The shallow characterizations are quickly established in their meeting. Manesquier is talkative and eager to make a friend with this intriguing stranger. Milan wants nothing to do with conversation and is soon on his way out the door. However, Milan finds the only hotel in town closed so he is quickly back at Manesquier's beautiful house seeking room and board. The old man is more that happy to put him up for a week.
From here on the movie drags as we slowly learn of Milan's upcoming bank robbery and Manesquier's inevitable surgery. Both, coincidentally, scheduled to take place on the same day and time. Manesquier is curiously intrigued by his new houseguest and begins to express his desire of changing his drab existence into something exciting and dangerous. He tries to confront two obnoxious patrons of a local restaurant and, later, secretly tells Milan of his longtime fantasy to knock off the local bank where he has an account. It makes his adrenaline surge just thinking about it. All the while, Milan listens stoicly with seeming indifference. It becomes apparent he has lost heart for his current lifestyle. However, I found myself indifferent to either character's journey.
The main problem is that the character development is non-existent, the backstory is undeveloped, and their objectives are very weak. Instead of a facsinating character story, we are left with watching a slow moving story of two boring men. The result has the audience asking, "Why do I care about these characters?" The answer was that I simply didn't care at all. And I cared less about what was going to happen to them. Neither character made me sympathize with their story and the story was devoid of any central conflict.
The climax occurs when the big day for both arrive. Milan at last goes to rob his bank and Manesquier has his surgery. There is rising suspense as these two stories are juxataposed and we are left on the edge of our seats wondering whether each character will live or die.
In the resolution both characters are effected more than they were aware of by the other. It leaves them with the realization that for a brief time they really wanted to live the other's life.
Rating:
Summary: Yea. A really good French film
Review: Many times French movies bug me. It's not the subtitles that aggravate, not at all. It's the inconclusive endings; French films just seem to...stop. Like, nowhere in particular.
But oh man, this one's a real winner. It's mostly two guys talking together. One is a professional bank robber who comes into town on a train to ply his trade. When he finds the local hotel closed, he takes advantage of the offer of an utterly weird and utterly charming and loveable old blabbermouth. Each of the two men is curious and envious of the lifestyle of the other, and their unlikely friendship blossoms in strange ways.
The conclusion of the film is a dance of two "operations:" as the bank robbery is in progress, the moves are paralleled by a triple bypass operation on the old dude.
It's a laugh out loud film, and then you want to cry... Beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: A Remarkable Foreign Film!
Review: My wife has tried for many years to interest me in foreign films, and to a large extent has not been too successful. In an attempt to broaden my horizons, I picked this film up and was immediately enthralled. The music, the cinematography, the plot, and the acting are all remarkable. Knowing of Hallyday only as a French pop star, I wasn't sure what to expect in the way of acting. I was very pleasantly surprised by his skill and ability, and found his character very compelling. This film, which has since found its way into my permanent DVD collection, is a great story of new friendship and discovery, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for something new.
Rating:
Summary: Perfectly Executed Film of Fate Quietly Contemplated
Review: Opening sequence: Street wise world weary traveling man Hallyday rides a train into a quiet French town one morning and while strolling the desolate streets he meets retired poetry professor Jean Rochefort. The two strike up a friendship and since the towns only hotel is closed for the season Rochefort invites Hallyday to spend a few days at his family home where he lives by himself. At first the two say very little but each is fascinated with the others life which is so different from his own. Rochefort is charming and sad and lonely and he finds the roaming Hallyday to be everything that he is not. Hallyday in turn finds something alluring about the ex-professors sedentary life. Rochefort suspects Hallyday is in town to do a heist and he is envious that he can't live such a life. It is a film about an unusual friendship that develops between two men who find they are nearing the end of their days and are thus looking at life with a wistful combination of mild wonder and regret. Certain small moments sum up the kind of life each man has lived. Hallyday tries a pair of slippers on for the first time in his life and Rochefort in turn fires a gun for the time in his. The men seem to recognize something in each other from the first time they meet and after three days together it is as if they have forged the deepest bond they have ever known. But the day of Hallydays big heist arrives and on this day Rochefort is due to go under the knife for a heart ailment. Leconte cuts between the operating room and the bank as these two men face down what may be their final hour. Each man thinks about the other and in the last minutes of the film we see each man finding comfort in picturing himself living the others life. Fascinating well-handled final sequence. This is a noir in the way it contemplates how mens fates are decided for them. But the fact that their fates are out of their hands does not discount each mans ability to imagine how it all could have been otherwise. Other excellent Patrice Leconte films: Monsieur Hire, Hairdressers Husband, Widow of Saint Pierre.
Rating: 
Summary: One Good Film
Review: Patrice Leconte (The Girl on the Bridge) does a solid job over ninety one minutes of this film which is essentially about ageing and the imminent approach of death. Milan played by Johnny Hallyday claims to have been a stuntman for fourteen years but has now turned to robbing banks.
He arrives, by train, into a small town and needs a place to stay while preparing for one more heist. As the local hotel is closed a chance meeting with M. Manesquier (Jean Rochefort) leads to his acceptance of the latter's hospitality. Manesquier who is scheduled for heart surgery is at the point of examining his life which has been spent sedately as a teacher of literature and living quietly at his large and now rundown estate. Milan is also having doubts about his own tawdry past and though he speaks little the ravages show in his gaunt face and rigid bearing. Hallyday is perfect for this role and Rochefort, the more experienced actor,needs all of his considerable skills in what is probably the more difficult assignment. An unlikely but genuine friendship blossoms between the two men and though the outcome is highly predictable the dialogue and interaction between them never misses. Both see in the other what they have missed or neglected in their own lives and begin to explore each other and their possessions. Milan recalls parts of a poem he once learned while his host shoots at a row of cans. In one of the most memorable scenes Milan is jostled in a bistro, does nothing, but points out to a surprised Manesquier that one man only beats two in the movies and adds a bitter reference to his own age. Manesquier attempts to right the situation but finds that the ruffian is a former student who likes him. Women play a small but essential role in this film and Milan's partners are stereotypical but effective in their parts as old friend, betrayer and numbskull. Leconte uses some grainy and blue black techniques to create a somewhat ethereal effect in filming and the final scene is juxtaposed at times unevenly but ultimately successfully enough to leave the viewer reflecting on the relationship which has preceded and dominated the film. This is probably a man's film but anyone old enough to agonize about lost opportunities and roads not travelled will grasp what Leconte has been able to achieve. Memorable..
Rating:
Summary: slow and boring
Review: Slow and boring. The first hour and fifteen minutes are nothing but a dawdling and pointless dialogue between two very different strangers who become somewhat of friends. If you are still awake for the last 15 minutes, there is a very brief moment of action. The music is intentionally reminiscent of an American Western but set in a modern French town, a freakish combination that didn't appeal to me in the least. The picture quality is good, however the English subtitles are fixed, can't be removed. Furthermore the translations aren't completely accurate, and they are often ill-timed.
Rating:
Summary: "Why's sweetness so dangerous?"
Review: The films of French director Patrice Leconte focus on unusual, non-definable relationships. In the film "Man on the Train", the unusual relationship is between retired poetry teacher, Manesquier (Jean Rochefort) and aging criminal Milan (Johnny Hallyday). The lives of these two men intersect, quite by accident, in a chemist shop. Milan wants aspirin, and Manesquier offers to give him a drink of water at his beautiful country home. The two vastly different men realise that they actually have a fair amount in common, and over the course of a few days, they exchange certain guarded confidences. It is particularly difficult for Milan to relax and accept Manesquier as a fellow member of the human race, but gradually, a wary trust begins to build. For a brief time, they allow themselves a glimpse of each other's lives--and both men play with the idea of what their lives could have been if their choices were different. The entire film rests on the idea that the relationship between these two different men is believable. To be honest, for the first part of the film, I was not convinced, but as the film reveals more about the characters--Manesquier in particular--then my disbelief vanished. I understood why Manesquier took the chance of allowing a rather shady character into his home. I particularly loved the ending of the film--and I was left with the sort of feeling I always have after watching a Patrice Leconte film--a feeling that I've been allowed to see something quite rare and fleeting. Jean Rochefort is a veteran of French cinema, and his performance is, as always, superb. Hallyday, a French musician, was great as the rough around-the-edges bank robber--a man whose life might have been very different if only he'd been dealt a different hand. If you enjoyed this film, I heartily recommend tracking down copies of Leconte's other films. They are all masterpieces of French cinema--displacedhuman
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