Man on the Train

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Goes from good to great in 90 minutes, and then it's over, except that it's really not, because this small masterwork grows even deeper and more affecting as it takes up permanent residence in your memory.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Man on the Train may be a modest film, but it offers privileged glimpses of transcendence.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Leconte brings his film to transcendent closure without relying on stale plot devices or the clanking of the plot. He resorts to a kind of poetry. After the film is over, you want to sigh with joy, that in this rude world such civilization is still possible.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

In an unassuming way, the film sizzles -- a perfect embodiment, as it happens, of the marriage of the bad man and the man of letters.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

This moody, progressively enthralling little French psychodrama is very much it's own thing: a boldly conceived, impeccably crafted and wonderfully enigmatic two-character study that turns out to be a most powerful showcase for its two stars.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

What a good movie. Sometimes you get tired of 'splaining and you just want to say: Hey, this one's really very good. That's all, folks. It's a damn good movie.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Piquant, thoroughly engaging character drama.

Time Richard Schickel

An elegantly polished little film.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Their calm assurance -- Hallyday as a grizzled icon, Rochefort as a melancholy mensch -- is a pleasure to behold.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The essence of the film is that French gambit which Leconte has called "the magic of the unlikely encounter.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

In the end, what the movie is about: time and life, and what we do with them, and what we regret that we didn't do.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Unobtrusively satisfying.

Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer

Both actors are marvelous, and the film, low-key but heartfelt, is a gem.

Film Threat Robert Learner

For those who find that most “life-affirming’ films leave them nauseous and sometimes angry, Man on the Train is a miracle of genuine uplift working with two characters probably fated to die.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Far from a spontaneous movie -- the passage of this relationship is mapped from the get-go -- but it is warm and deep, and its visual style bespeaks a new maturity in Leconte.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Mr. Leconte gives this meeting of opposites in Claude Klotz's script a lovely, sportive élan, instead of making it register as lumpy, obvious polemics.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Watching Man on the Train is like coming across one of those threadbare Persian rugs you see on public tours of private homes. Its elegance is more comfortable than cold, and it carries its worn, battered mien proudly.

Variety David Rooney

The comedy-drama hinges on the captivating dynamic between the two men, combining gentle humor and charm with a melancholy undercurrent of yearning.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

By film's end, Leconte has made you believe these disparate men inhabit the same soul: The chasm between them is a matter of paths not taken.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

The true sensory delight is when the two men share screen time, and the palette is bombarded with their contrasting hues, the score (by Pascal Esteve) even meticulously interlacing their two musical personalities.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The film doesn't have much of a narrative, and the ending is a little too mystical, but there's still plenty here to engage the attention of all but the most restless of movie-goers.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

A thinking man's buddy movie.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Taps into the same emotional current that sustains the entire "buddy picture" genre, but does so with feeling and unmistakable insight.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Heartfelt performances make up for some stodgy dialogue and corny moments, though. And it's nice to know some filmmakers still have a foot firmly planted in old-fashioned humanistic storytelling.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The movie -- simple, pure and powerful -- makes us feel the intensity of both life in transit and life lived, if only for a moment, in another's skin.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The excellently translated subtitles retain the wit and flavor of the brisk, at times even hardboiled, dialogue.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Leconte lacks the austerity to complete a film in which nothing much occurs. And so, with some reluctance, we are bustled toward a climax. [12 May 2003, p. 82]

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

As a filmmaker, he (Leconte) doesn't have anything profound to say but does say his something with craft, visual flair and professionalism. Depending on your mood, that can be either too little or just enough.

Slate David Edelstein

A slender thing, with a perversely undernourished color scheme: grainy blue exteriors and old-time sepia interiors. The fullness comes from the faces of its two protagonists.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

As in many a French movie, especially crime movie, the philosophe and the crook turn out to be each other’s mirror image.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The premise, the structure, and the men-at-twilight conversation in Patrice Leconte's ingratiating drama feel cloyingly predetermined at times, but the sight of Hallyday and Rochefort luxuriating in their contrasting manly personas is a kick.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

There's the air of sadness and worry all over this movie, and sometimes it's heavy. But it's air all the same.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

One of the small pleasures of the movie is likely to escape American audiences. The bank robber is played by Johnny Hallyday, a pop icon of great magnitude in France, and the old man is played by Jean Rochefort, an acting staple of that country's cinema. The mere juxtaposition of these two personalities forms a comic set of expectations.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Loses something in its transposition to America where the two leads are not nearly as widely known as they are in their home country of France.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Though an assured and diverting piece of filmmaking, Man On The Train sags from complacency, rarely breaking its neat construction to animate the friendship with any real warmth and life.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Collapses in a heap of affirmational outbursts and metaphysical goop. The fond chemistry between the leads deserves a better movie.