Rating: 
Summary: Class and style
Review: This is what About Schmidt should have been like: regrets about life, but with class and style.
Rating: 
Summary: Another wonderful French film
Review: Two men of entirely different makes, have a chance meeting in a small French town drugstore. One, a quiet midlife bank robber and the movie's namesake, has arrived by train in order to case the town's bank and prepare a team to rob it. The other, a much older chatterbox, is a retired French teacher, and still tutors children, as well as read poetry and play the piano. The bank robber yearns for a more peaceful and quiet life, whereas the teacher longs for excitement, fearing that his life is close to finishing. The bank robber, by means of unforeseen circumstances, is forced to stay at the teacher's home for the week while he prepares his work. The unlikely pair begin a tender friendship that starts to move both men toward the things they are really looking for in life. By the end of the week, both men have been affected in ways that will change their life for good.This movie is a character piece. No sex, minimal violence. It moves in a slow but very steady pace. The director recognizes that this is a movie based on dialogue, and the things going on in the two protagonists' heads. It's very enjoyable and yet just another wonderful film coming out of France.
Rating:
Summary: Slightly Derailed Towards the End
Review: Well, of course I don't want to ruin it for you, so all I'll say is that there is a shocking turn of events towards the end. And I said to myself, "oh, I thought that might happen." But then there was a weird sequence that concluded the film which frankly I could not understand. Thus, one less star for this movie than it might have gotten. I'd never seen either actor before, not surprising since I don't generally see French cinema, but both were very good. The Man we see on the Train at the beginning of the movie is a mysterious fellow who is rather like Charles Bronson. Pure chance brings him in contact with a Man from the Town, an older stay-at-home gent who is rather like old Danny Kaye. Together they begin an unlikely friendship where each starts to yearn to be more like the other. An interesting commentary on how people,regardless of their circumstances, have regrets as they get on in years. Worth stopping by.
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