For the initial two-thirds of the movie, I was hooked, plot pace was quick and unexpected. Once the story shifted to finding his wife, the movie losted its intensity and suspensefulness.

Seemed amateurish, i.e., bad acting combined with a weak plot. Comparisons with Hitchcock are overstated (maybe Hitchcock at his worst).

I went into this film not knowing a thing about it, and left very surprised how much I liked it. Along with Michael Haneke's "Time of the Wolf", this is probably the most memorable French film I've seen all year. First of all, I LOVED Jean-Pierre Darroussin in this movie and his is by far my favorite performance by an actor this year. He is so utterly watchable and with his schlub-like demeanor and everyday looks he is like Olivier Gourmet without the intensity. The first 30 minutes of the film are very Chabrol-like, with its portrayal of a bourgeouis couple attempting to hide the seething rage/resentment under the surface. But once Darroussin picks up a shady character in a bar and offers him a ride, the film shifts tones dramatically and becomes a horror-inflected suspense film. Cedric Kahn masterfully handles shifts in tone and style. Scenes start from bright, clean, open Paris streets and restaurants to rock-music blaring, danky nightclubs to small French countryside villages. The locations are used to wonderful effect and help support the story. Also, I really love how Kahn films Darroussin's drunkeness and driving. The camera movements and scenes behind the wheel (where the camera sits in a static position and all we see are what he sees: hazy red streams of light and twisting streets). I really felt like we get a sense of what state of mind this guy is in as he is wasted out of his mind. And since the entire film is told from his point of view it is even more harrowing. Also, I must add to the bonehead who mentioned the brilliant scene where Darroussin uses a phone at a coffee shop and calls various hospitals and police stations searching for his wife. That is a virtuoso sequence and one of the best I've seen all year. The conversations are so intense and compelling that it almost feels like the whole thing was done in one take. We are really caught up in what is going on and who can't relate to that anyway?… Expand

Like the traffic jam setting of this movie, the action is frustrating and boring at the same time, with only spurts of interest and movement throughout. The worst scene of all involves endless phone calls to an endless number of hospitals and police stations. Pure cinematic torture.

Slow, dull and disappointing. Poor performances and a lackluster ending will disappoint those who suffer through the long setup. Stay away!

I was getting a little impatient at the pace for the first half, but then things got interesting, and it moved along nicely. I noticed two things that did not seem logical in the second half; but changing them would have totally changed what followed. It was still disappointing, otherwise I would have given it an 8.

My husband and I found this a very intense movie about two annoying people, a cold wife and a husband whose drinking at each stop along the way forecast doom. But the working out of the plot proved to be surprising and quite satisfying after all. Also we loved the look at the not so glamorous French back roads.

This movie was pitiful. Soooo slow. The acting is weak. The twist in the end is not worth the deadening slow pace of the movie. Do not see this movie. Sure it's got elements of a thriller and suspense, but those elements only add up to a really bad made-for-TV movie.

This is the slowest film of all time and was not impressive in the least. Are all of these reviewers on drugs? This film was horrible and tests the viewers patience. It does not give you suspense, it gives you frustration. Don't see this movie unless you near comatose.

Unfortunately emotional intensity is at its highest in the first third of the movie. But it remains at least interesting throughout, and the central performance couldn't be bettered.