O Viajante

This is probably one of the best love stories I have ever seen because inevitably it is doomed. With a stellar cast and gorgeous scenery, the movie instantly grabs your attention. Sam Shepard as always gives an intriguing performance as Faber, a civil engineer traveling across the Europe. He has a dry wit and cynical sense of humor, seeming reluctant to make friends with his fellow passengers until he meets Sabeth played by Julie Delpy. With her charm and outspoken personality, he is soon drawn to her. The passion of their love affair and strong physical attraction makes this story all the more tragic as it unfolds. It is heartbreaking to witness the coolness and detachment which consume Faber as the realization of who this woman really is, hits him. I almost cried to see how devastated Sabeth was at Faber's rejection of her. This is a truly great performance and have always admired Sam Shepard as one of the great actors of our time. Julie Delpy does a fantastic job portraying the young woman. Also her mother gives a good performance.

I would highly recommend this film, but to a more mature audience who is not easily shocked.

Voyager is to be enjoyed for the characters and the actors' performances and not for the plot which is rather obvious, unsurprising, and which requires extensive suspension of disbelief. Sam Shepard is very effective but it is the ethereal luminescence of Julie Delpy that kept me riveted. She is a special presence onscreen. In addition, although the story is contrived, the relationships and issues are thought provoking and lingering.

The first (and last) images of this film really interested me. At the risk of spoiling, we find Faber sitting alone in a Greek airport trying to figure out what the hell just happened to him. A really depressing scene that draws you in to his web of coincidence that is the rest of the story.

Faber is a man of science that really should have a great life(he is the chief engineer on an important dam project), but his past catches up with him with a series of coincidences that play a terrible joke with his life.

Delpy is very sexy and very French. The aircraft that crashes is just as sexy. A romp around Europe rounds this great film out. Watch with your wife or girlfriend with wine - not with the guys and beer!

A laconic engineer/adventurer, with a fear of chance and coincidence, courts both when he meets a young waif half his age who reminds him of his lost love, and not without good reason. The final surprise plot twist is telegraphed well in advance, but after a clumsy introduction, with too many flashbacks within flashbacks and odd, impulsive changes in scenery (Europe to South America to New York City), the globetrotting story settles down into a haunting parable of memory and fate, showing how one can be forgotten but the other never avoided. The only other flaw to the film is Sam Shepard's annoying and unnecessary voice-over confession, which sounds as if it were added for the benefit of slow thinking American audiences. The narration spoils what could have been a minor romantic masterpiece; notice how much more enigmatic and involving the story becomes without it.

I give Homo Faber 5/5, it captivates from the start. The movie is set in some beautiful places namely (France, Germany, South America and Italian countryside)which does justice to its aka title "Voyager." A carefully structured plot which unravels beautifully with a touch of adventure,nostalgia and mystique. Sam Shepard really shines in this role. The rest of the cast is up to the job.