Two men from opposites sides of the track meet by chance and come to see that they envy each other out of a mutual sense that their lives are ultimately unfulfilled. The criminal side fantasizes about living a quiet petit bourgeois life, while the petit bourgeois imagines himself committing crimes as they occur in the glamorous way of the movies. This critique of the ersatz glamour offered by movies shows just how dull and ordinary most people's lives truly are; hence, the need for the spurious excitement of vicarious experience.
Here, petty achievements base themselves on negatives like being a successful teacher because no child suffered molestation as a result. Yet, each offers the other what they cannot provide for themselves. And this is, in that sense, as true a human relationship as each could ever possibly hope for since they both define failure as someone who wishes he were somebody else.
Both characters lack the moral courage to make informed choices and then to face the consequences that are concomitant with choice – as such - and, thereby, become fully grown adults. Essentially a movie about getting old, loneliness and failure, it does not depress with its insights, humor and understatement.
Jean Rochefort is particularly excellent – as always - as the old man dreaming of being a cowboy. Trés drôle.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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