The Voyager

The atmosphere, style, and characterization are quite striking and memorable, although some aspects of the plot are simply not credible. I was riveted to my seat by the powerful cinematography and characters. In the end I'm not sure if there is much of a governing 'vision of life' which informs the film, although such a vision might be hinted at occasionally. Not that every film must exhibit such a vision, but the result of such a meandering plotline, as we see here, is a simple yearning for resolution. So why do I give 'Voyager' a high rating? Simply because such memorable and humane images and characters are very hard to come by nowadays.

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.

The Voyager is in fact a drama that happens to use the novel Homo Faber by Max Frisch as its backdrop. The director picked the main three characters and boiled down the plot to its essence which takes the viewer on a globe spanning journey of coincidences and places its main protagonist Walter Faber who is an engineer who doesn't believe in fate squarely in front of his past and down a spiral to the destruction of the life of his own daughter. Certain aspects of the movie come across as far fetched because the viewer cannot benefit from the additional information available to the reader of the book. On the other hand the movie brings across the immediacy of the tragic events much closer to home and resonate with a receptive audience. The novel and this movie try to show that life cannot be reduced to a simple formula and that the mind is not equipped to deal with the matters of the heart. In that the Voyager succeeds in translating the core of the plot. Students of the novel will of course be disappointed because the director had to cut out many scenes and aspects of the book. With that in mind we are still left with a movie that should get some emotions flowing.

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.