Metroland

"Metroland" Christian Bale stars as Chris, a 30 year old man who must reexamine his priorities and life choices once an old friend(Lee Ross) comes back into his life. The friend criticizes Chris on the lack of excitement in his life and urges him to leave his wife Marion (Emily Watson) and travel the world. As enticing the dramatic possibilities seem with this plot, "Metroland" takes all the expectations one might have and tries something new. It's a character piece, headlined with a smashing performance by Bale. It's also funny, bright, and deeply introspective. The plot takes us on a tour of Chris's past. A past that included a stay in Paris with a beautiful native. The woman teaches Chris the ways of love and bohemian lifestyle, a lifestyle Chris has always wanted. The section takes up about half of the film, and is the film's strongest suit. We see the very English Chris try to pass himself off as a Parisian and curse at other Brits, he also loses his virginity is a grandly comical scene. The other half of the film deals with Chris trying to justify his lack of shame in his calm, predictable life. Veteran director Philip Saville does a good job making sure the audience never loses faith in Chris. It could have been real easy to drag the film through a series of lame dramatics, but Saville gives realistic answers to realistic questions.

There are a lot of pluses in "Metroland". It's well written, sharply shot with a good eye for detail, and everybody out there knows how I feel about the brilliant Emily Watson. What I liked best, and this might seem weird, but with all the grotesque nudity in such films as "Go" and "He Got Game", "Metroland" is refreshingly blunt. There is a lot of bodies on display here, but in a very natural and - dare I say - beautiful way. It's not thrown in your face. It just is. This is a good movie that relies on a soft, steady narrative than a hyped, antsy one.------------- 8

Metroland is true to the midlife crisis, except between two people who haven't quite reached that stage of their lives yet. Christian Bale plays an Englishman who begins to reminisce about his past in the mid and late '60s when an old friend (played by Lee Ross) comes back to stir up his life. While I felt that the story was strong and seemingly dramatic enough to keep me interested and entertained, the character played by Lee Ross just seemed unnecessary. This character is supposed to build the plot the first half of the movie and I felt this could've been reached in many other directions.

And if you love France, well, you'll love the beautiful depiction of French women with an excellent performance given by Elsa Zylberstein, Bale's character's 'old flame' that he thinks about constantly throughout the film.

Beautiful 'still' cinematography throughout is perfect for Bale's character's love for photography and makes the film very watchable just for art's sake.

By the time I reached the last 45 minutes or so, I was much more intrigued and worried for the well-being of Bale's marriage with his present day (1977) wife, played wonderfully by Emily Watson. The tension between the two of them throughout the film is far more than believable and I loved it.

While I wanted to give this movie a much higher rating, I think it is fair to say that the first half moves much too slow. I was also slightly disappointed by the ending of the film, but it was still a great surprise and hit me unexpectedly. I highly recommend for Bale/Watson fans.

Okay, you can tell me I'm crazy but I completely wonder why the hell this movie was made. I gave it an okay rating, but only because I hate butchering films. The cinematography was less than good, the story was weak and lacked and real twist or meat to it and the characters were so bland that there really wasn't much to invest in. I mean, I found this difficult to bother to sit through on television while sick with a cold and dying just to chill to the TV. To me, that's a pretty bad sign. I love Emily Watson, so I stuck it through to the end, but even my enthusiasm for her as an actress was not enough to make a difference in the taste this movie left in my mouth, which I can only describe as blander than any food I've ever tasted, even when I was a baby on Gerber.

My advice to others that wish to take any... Do not bother wasting your time. Life is too short and if you're going to watch a movie about other people's lives, it should at least be as interesting as your own.

The main character in Metroland embodies the crisis that every one of us has already or will probably go through. "Have we made the right choices in our lives to make ourselves happy?".

The movie portrays this character's search for the answers through flashbacks to his past as well as new events that are occurring in his present. The two paths that he could have taken were shown. He begins questioning if he had made the right choice with his current life. A life which he thought he would never want when he was younger and rebellious. The "9 to 5" job that we, or at least some of us, have all dreaded in fear of the death of our own creativity and individualism. The main male character basically is the imperfect hero with imperfect thoughts, much akin to the "hero" that we can hope to be at this day and age.

The last line in the movie, "If not now, then, never." is a line we always hear but take its meaning for granted. Truly, if happiness is not found in the moment..in the "now"..then, where else can it ever be?

If Francois Truffaut were still alive today I think Metroland would easily fit into his oeuvre. A film about a person taking stock of himself at the crossroads, Metroland introduces us to a suburban utopia where people go to work everyday, take their kids to school, and wash their cars on the weekend. Christian Bale seems to accept this life until an old friend rings him up wanting to revisit the old times. Throughout the film we see what Bale's character could've been and how much happier he thought he was. Metroland's assertion is to accept life for what it is and not what it is not. Not everyone's cup of tea as evidenced by Bale's boyhood chum but being the film's setting takes place during the late seventies in England right before the rise of Thatcherism may be a subtle stab at what the middle class of the film will come to accept. Conformity over confrontation may ultimately be Metroland's theme no matter how much it hurts us to admit it.