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Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Milan (Johnny Hallyday) is a criminal who arrives in a quiet small town by train. Monsieur Manesquier (Jean Rochefort) is one of the few people around and he invites Milan to stay in his home. He's a retired teacher and the two men talk. They find each other's lives appealing.The problem for me is that there is some kind of appeal from these two people acting together. They are some well-known french personalities. Of course, I have no idea who these people are and I don't find their interactions that special. It has some interesting moments but it's way too slow most of the time. I kept waiting for things to happen. It's a french thriller with a different sensibility. The dialog is the most important part of the movie and it probably deserves to be listened to in French. I'm not able to appreciate this movie.

I immensely enjoyed this film, albeit for somewhat shameful reasons! It is rather clichéd, has many inconsistencies and unlikely plot devices, however it is also knowing, charming and unapologetically French. Whilst it will not become one of my favoured films as the characters are a little weak and as i've said the story is rather sentimental I got a great deal of pleasure watching it.This is just the sort of drama American studios seem unable to make and this is why this slender little film punches so far above it's weight. Undoubtedly 'non actor' Hallyday would run rings around a great many of Hollywood's sons. The beginning and end of the film were the highlights, although I feel better use could have been made of the train and it's journey as a vehicle for the themes explored.

Excellent, well paced, beautifully shot, intelligently scripted film that could have only come out of France. Without becoming sentimental, except perhaps for part of the ending, this is an engrossing tale that begins with two completely different men meeting as they leave a pharmacy. Jean Rochefort as the hermit like villager in his ramshackle mansion, is of course immaculate and convincing from the start but Johnny Hallyday as the man who has arrived by train for a few days is a revelation. The film tells of the relationship of the two men as it develops over those couple of days, in fact and in their imagination. The fact that Hallyday is in this village to meet up with fellow baddies and hold up the local bank is at once central and yet almost irrelevant as the main two characters psyche become entwined. Great film making and whilst I find the start of the end fine, as others have mentioned it does go a little too far and considering the beauty and measured pace of the rest of the film, I do consider, at least the very end to be a mistake. It does not, however, spoil the delight that this film is.

European cinema again; again originality, again stuff almost unique that I'm afraid I'll never find something similar. Here, the story about two people, and those two alone, and it is not easy two keep up ninety minutes developing their experiences. You need to have a good eye, pace, and respect for your characters.These characters are Milan (Johnny Hallyday), a thief; and Monsieur Manesquier (Jean Rochefort), a retired literature professor. Their differences make their encounters scary. One, an old man who likes to talk and is fascinated by this mysterious obscure man in strange clothes; Manesquier enters Milan's room and imagines to be in a fantasy world he couldn't live in.Milan is quiet and soft talking, but induces the old man into the drinking again, into excitement and adventures; and after meeting his pals he even doubts about carrying on with the only thing he came to do to this town: rob a bank. He reaches the limit of giving a literature lesson to one of Manesquier's pupils.The camera is in love with them both, and presents each one in an original way when they are on screen. Different colors, postures, followings. Each one might hide something; there's a past, but that's not what this story that wanders through coincidences and casualties of life wants to show.A simple aspirin, a glass of water; what can that lead to. The anxiety of a man to be part of something he never lived, on one side. On the other side the silence and intrigue of the little conversation. The glasses of wine, the lunches that seem to say much but are saying almost nothing about the characters.The music, by Pacscal Estève, is very important to the film; giving to it a touch of Westerns style, playing to represent the state of mind and humor of the characters when we see them, or simply, not playing at all; and that's very good sometimes. Ivan Maussion's production design is also a good point for that matter, with his deserted streets and lonely places.The screenplay results to be cultured and very intelligent. Patrice Leconte's frequent writing collaborator leaves everything in his character's hands; because the words are his. Also frequently cast by Leconte, Jean Rochefort's delivery is impressing in his measured role, that requires little but well done. It's Johnny Hallyday, however, the one who steals, or shines in his loneliness. With all those looks and his face, always full of hidden things.Metaphors join us again, in the movie; for us to interpret. I tried, and everyone will, but I say: thank Europe for these movies; it's worth and more a kind of pleasure to watch them!