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60Its strongest assets, aside from a performance by Ms. Watson that pierces through the nonsense, are Mark Knopfler's fine, expressive score and the attractiveness of its star.
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75There are a lot of movies about escaping from the middle class, but Metroland is one of the few about escaping into it.
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75A sexy, moody comedy that plays like a dreamy comic novel.
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91It's the rare portrait of a happy marriage that is honest about the complex currents of desire, and the drama is beautifully played by Bale, who gawks with soulful sweetness, and Watson, who does her most piercing work since "Breaking the Waves."
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80A satisfying story of love and marriage told with humor and insight.
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An unflashy tale of memory and desire in suburban London.
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70While it's true that you can't pack as much psychological detail into a movie as you can into a novel, director Philip Saville and screenwriter Adrian Hodges bring out the yeasty subtext of even the most brittle encounters.
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70Metroland finally makes a good, subtle case for the bearable weightiness of middle-class being, for the higher morality of muddling through.
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63Metroland is a provocative rumination on how relationships are warped by two people's inability to be truthful with each other.
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63This slight story of youthful dreams and adult compromise is bolstered by finely modulated performances from the three leads.
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63Bale and Watson make most of the film more interesting and watchable than it might otherwise be, finding flesh and blood in a script that isn't always equal to their talents. [23 Apr 1999]
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63Director Philip Saville, working from a script by Adrian Hodges (which, in turn, is based on the novel by Julian Barnes), has crafted a competent, character-based tale, but the issues examined are stale, and Saville is unable to find a way to take the story to a newer, more interesting level
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50Bale fails to make Chris a character compelling enough to stand out from that heavy dose of '70s clothes and hair.
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50Bale tends to be overwrought and self-conscious as he wrestles with his demons, here in both '60s flashbacks (the liveliest segment) and in the 1977 present, in which punk clubs and easy women represent temptation. [09 Apr 1999]
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50The sexually charged undercurrent of Mertoland promises something dark, disturbing or at least provocative, but as the characters reach their defining moments, it's the plot that yields to the ordinary.
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58Conceptually, the film is unique - it's a kind of nostalgia movie within a nostalgia movie. [16 Apr 1999]
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58As a tasteful take on a minor novel, Metroland is genteel enough, but it lacks the urgency and scope of a must-see movie. [07 May 1999]
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70A witty script and strong performances hoist Metroland beyond the confines of its rather standard, TV-style approach.
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70It's a thoughtfully constructed story, with nuanced performances all around and even a mild surprise thrown in, but the whole thing feels ever so slightly enervated, like a game of chess between codgers in the park.
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60This fairly serious meditation on conventionality and monogamy blames his ennui on external forces, remaining adolescent even when it suggests its hero has grown up.
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50Too bad the film ultimately fails to explore [provocative questions], falling instead to cliches.
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50The movie is bittersweet, adult, with a fair eye toward men's eternal spirit of the infantile, and knowing. Possibly it's too slick, but in some awkward way it sums up the true essence of adult life, which is just sort of getting along without doing too much harm. [30 Apr 1999]
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10Replete with false dilemmas, assisted by a dreadfully stagy screenplay and directed with all the animation of a tableau vivant, Metroland is such a draggy bore.
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0Metroland, which is adapted from a novel by Julian Barnes, is an oddly unpleasant variation on the theme of "The Way We Were." [09 Apr 1999]