Review: Metroland

Chris Lloyd (Christian Bale) is living the perfect life: a house in the suburbs, a well-paying job, a beautiful toddler, and an equally beautiful wife Marion (Emily Watson). Their sex life is great though he complains that they're not doing it as much as they used to -- once a day instead of several times a day. So why is he walking the streets after midnight in his pajamas and making lists in his head to keep the panic down? "What have you got to panic about?" Marion rightly asks. "Nothing," he concedes, "that's what worries me."

The reappearance of his best friend Toni (Lee Ross) puts his discontent into focus. Last they saw each other, they were two young turks rampaging through London, detesting the bourgeoisie and vowing never to be a part of the system. They wouldn't be like the English dandies with their nine-to-five jobs, they were going to go to Paris and live the bohemian life. Ten years later, Toni has fulfilled his early promise and become a globetrotting hedonist while Chris has settled into a quiet routine as a husband and provider. "You've become your parents," Toni observes.

Well, Chris fancies himself more than that. In his imaginings, Marion cheerfully suggests he go out and indulge in extramarital affairs -- in fact, it'll make their marriage better -- while she stays home and does the cleaning and ironing. Chris may only be in his early thirties but the mid-life crisis is hitting him fast and furious. He's got an itch and it's exacerbated by his proximity to Toni's swinging lifestyle and the constant remembrance of things past. More specifically, of Annick (Elsa Zylberstein).

Imagine Paris, 1968. For Chris, it's a time of possibilities, a time to be 21 and free. Living in a flat and pursuing his dream to be a photographer, he makes extra cash by helping out at the bistro run by Henri (Rufus), who tells him not to fall in love. But of course Chris does. With the enchanting Annick with her lovely dark hair and dancing eyes and the way she wipes her mouth with her hair. They live and love -- days of passion and smoking and reading Rimbaud and going to see the latest cinematic bonbon from the New Wave directors. It's this section of the film that truly flies -- one becomes drugged by the La Vie Boheme of it all. Bale and the rapturous Zylberstein, a star in her native France, connect joyously. Watch Bale in their first meeting, his body restless with excitement and anticipation; he's practically bursting at the seams. And Zylberstein in her final scene -- "I was teaching you to be sincere, not cruel," she tells him, her disappointment embodied by her subsequent silence. It's an emotional and physical communication these two achieve.

Marion and Chris, on the other hand, are a more practical duo. She grounds him. When she meets him in Paris, she sees through all his talk about never wanting to return to England or getting married and having kids and taking on responsibilities. "I think you will," she notes. "You're not original enough not to." Marion is frightening in her wisdom and clarity but Watson also makes Marion's pragmatic cynicism a guise for her more manipulative side. It recalls Winona Ryder's character in The Age of Innocence, where the insipid debutante was revealed to have claws. Like that character, Marion is out to ensure the well-being of her marriage and of herself as well. This is not to say that she's evil but she convinces Chris to realize the futility of his restlessness and embrace what he's become and wants to be. Pay attention to Watson -- but then how can you not? -- and you'll see what I mean.

Philip Saville directs in a straightforward manner and burnishes the film with a knowing and cheeky attitude. He's helped enormously by his four leads, especially Bale who essentially has to create two versions of Chris. Chris in Paris is the more fun of the two -- Bale is curious, loose and relaxed but as the thirty-one year old father, Bale conveys the restlessness stirring within the deadened demeanor with conviction.

Metroland

Directed by: Philip Saville

Written by: Adrian Hodges; adapted from the novel by Julian Barnes

Starring: Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Lee Ross, Elsa Zylberstein