Roman De Gare

Roman de Gare is not a particularly well-cast or well-acted film but it is craftily plotted and well-directed enough to hold one’s attention even if one feels a little short-changed by the pat ending.

The film opens by introducing the main characters whose tracks, although apparently separate, as the title implies, will cross. Fanny Ardant plays author Judith Ralitzer who has just released a best-selling novel called God, the Other, Dominique Pinon is Pierre Laclos who might be an escaped serial killer or a school teacher who has left his wife and child or he might be Ralitzer’s secretary. Audrey Dana is Huguette, a woman who Pierre picks up in a service station after she is dumped there by her boyfriend.

The film is largely concerned with the relationship between these three characters. It does this quite intriguingly albeit more so in the first half which deftly unpicks the tangled threads than the second half when it weaves out of them a new mystery, but one which is too easily contrived. Whilst like most thrillers it hardly stands the reality test, the film also suffers from rather poor casting choices. Dominique Pinon, who was the memorable hero of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 1991 cult hit, Delicatessen, makes an unlikely secretary and ghostwriter to Fanny Ardant’s equally unlikely novelist whilst Audrey Dana makes the unlikely daughter of country bumpkins. Still, with these kinds of films, realism and dramatic credibility are not the point. It’s about more superficial pleasures and in this respect Roman de Gare delivers.

DVD Extras: Theatrical Trailer

Available from: Umbrella Entertainment

 

Want something different?