Intriguing French thriller is a page-turner
By Phil Villarreal
Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.17.2008
Pierre could be the serial killer who's on the loose. Or he might be just an honest magician/ex-high school teacher trying to get by. He tells people he's engaged to femme fatale Huguette, which he's not. And Pierre may not be Pierre after all, but Louis. Or even Judith.
You'll be guessing your way through the first couple acts of the French mystery/thriller "Roman de Gare," but you'll have the company of equally confused characters, who collude for a balancing act that dovetails together at the finish.
Still going strong at age 70, French director Claude Lelouch ("And Now . . . Ladies and Gentlemen . . .") whips up the cinematic equivalent of a page-turning mystery novel. His duplicitous characters out-think one another — and sometimes themselves — spurring cagey plot twists and stunning reveals.
The climax comes at the beginning. Famed author Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) sits down for a televised writer's round table, bristling at the host's backhanded compliment that her new book is much better than her unfairly praised previous work. Later on we'll jump back to that moment, after which someone in the audience makes an accusation that ratchets up the tension.
But before then Lelouch shifts to the story of Huguette (Audrey Dana), a chain-smoking bride-to-be whose doctor boyfriend leaves her stranded at a rest stop. Enter Pierre (Dominique Pinon), an impish smooth-talker with a penchant for card tricks who's a possible match for the killer on the loose described on the radio.
He coaxes Huguette into his car and tells her exactly what she wants to hear, while she plays up her damsel-in-distress act. Things get really creepy when he starts speaking mysteriously into a tape recorder and pointedly suggesting they take a walk in the woods together. Undeterred by the red flags, Huguette asks Pierre to visit her parents and claim to be her man. It isn't quite clear who's playing whom, or whether they're just characters inside Judith's head.
Lelouch's narrative may be too meandering for some tastes, but like a tactful magician he keeps the air of suspense while teasing you with misdirection.
His three leads deliver such even performances it's impossible to tell when someone's lying. Like good poker players, they give nothing away with their eyes. Pinon, who recalls Robin Williams in potentially dangerous "One Hour Photo" or "Insomnia" mode, bewitches you with an uneasy charm. Pierre lets others walk all over him before turning the tables in an instant. But his coolest asset is his magic: One time he grabs a newspaper out of a man's hands, rips it up and then hands it back to the man intact.
It's the same trick Lelouch pulls with your expectations.
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