Roman de gare

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A brilliant piece of construction, and talking too much about its specifics would only spoil the overall experience.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Like nearly any thriller, no matter how intelligently and tightly plotted, it is possible to poke holes in its fabric. But, as it's unspooling in the theater, it makes for a wonderful movie house experience. Here's a sleeper worth a few extra miles' travel to see.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A sly catalog of deceits and a gentle commentary on slippery creativity and desire.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

By far the most purely entertaining of all his films to reach these shores, Roman de Gare is the rare trick film in which all the tricks reveal something amusing, involving or poignant about its characters.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The freshness and originality that flow through Roman de Gare now burst into full flower, revealing the director's depth and perception.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A glossy, enjoyable thriller that isn't quite as tricky or Hitchcockian as it wants to be, Roman de Gare gets by on high style and nice central performances by rubber-faced Dominique Pinon.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Slyly exploiting audience expectations and prejudices, Lelouch calls into question our very ways of seeing, even as he and his longtime writing partner, Pierre Uytterhoeven, craft an elegant meditation on loss and rebirth.

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

The result is infectiously enjoyable.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Roman de Gare translates as "station novel," a book you might pick up to read on a train journey and then discard when you arrive at your destination. Lelouch's film is the cinematic equivalent, enjoyable fluff that your mind will discard after the closing credits - but worth seeing nevertheless.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Lelouch means to transcend the genre. He doesn't really move much beyond his usual glib panache here, but the plot is intriguing and so are the actors.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The structure of Lelouch's pedal-to-the-metal story commands attention and suspense. The three principals are enormously engaging, and Gérard de Battista's succulent cinematography creates the sense of actually being there.

Chicago Tribune Sid Smith

The ultimate charms of the movie lie in Lelouch’s confident control, in his telling of the story his way, almost stubbornly, his canvas splattered with both garish and hypnotic splotches.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

There's a lot of pleasure in seeing a mature filmmaker put together something so intricate with what seems like so little strain.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The film's not really a whodunit or even a whoizzit, so learning his identity matters less than what happens after he reveals it. The film becomes truly French in its attitudes toward thwarted ambition and emotion, right down to an ending that may strike Americans as melodramatic.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

If you're willing to go along with it, as I was, then being manipulated -- or at least actively misled -- becomes a pleasure.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A thriller, a murder mystery and a somewhat self-conscious literary puzzle. All of that is entertaining enough, if a bit preposterous and overdone, but the twists and convolutions of the film’s beginning and end enable a middle that is dizzying domestic comedy.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie is more entertaining than it is logical; its narrative leaps are sometimes ahead of our ability to believe them. But as the compellingly enigmatic Pierre, Pinon keeps us rapt.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

This goofy tale of self-emancipation, a love story made by a mature man wise to the possibilities of the improbable, is also a thriller with an unexpectedly dark edge.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The air of mystery here is appealing, because the secrets behind it seem to matter both a great deal and not at all--rather like love, which has been Lelouch’s subject ever since he made "A Man and a Woman."

Variety Scott Foundas

Picture gets an undeniable boost from the ace performance of the short, beady-eyed Pinon.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Sam Adams

Roman De Gare's neatest trick is Pinon's performance, which draws out a hitherto unseen leading-man allure.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film -- Lelouch's 49th in 41 years -- stars Fanny Ardant as a glamorous, beautiful and phenomenally popular Parisian novelist who we first see in a flash-forward as she's being hauled into the Sureté, interrogated and formally charged with murder.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's contemporary French cinema without a dollop of Besson and Jeunet's beloved CGI theatrics, and all the better for it.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Never seen a murder mystery you couldn't outwit? Here is your movie.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's so clever that finally that's all it is: clever.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The 70-something director puts us back in luxury's lap with Roman de Gare, which looks just like the high-roller ads you get in the first 40 pages of Vogue or Vanity Fair but feels vaguely more emotional. Lelouch wants to tie a Hermès scarf around our hearts.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The story's Hitchcockian plot loses steam quickly, though Pinon's salty presence keeps things from getting totally bloodless.