Roman de Gare

Cars. We love them, we hate them, we need them. They're a place to eat, to make love, to talk. There's something about being so close to someone and talking to them without actually having to look them in the eye — does that make you more honest, or less so? Cars offer enticing freedom for the driver, yet they can be a trap for the passenger. What would happen should you accept a ride from someone who's helpful at first, then turns contrary?

That's the dilemma of harried hairdresser Huguette (Audrey Dana), abandoned at a lonely filling station following a fight with her boyfriend. No sooner do the red taillights of her ride disappear into the night than the distraught woman is approached by a mysterious stranger (Dominique Pinon) who seems a bit too eager to make friends with her. He has a car, he says, and he's going her way. Reluctantly at first, then happily, she accepts the lift and pours her heart out to the stranger.

Meanwhile, a bestselling crime novelist, Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) finds herself a person of interest to the gendarmes in Paris' Quai des Orfevres headquarters in regards to her suspected connection to a recently escaped serial killer known as The Magician.

The Magician performs fun little sleights of hand for his victims before making them disappear. And as it turns out, Huguette's new friend not only has a few tricks up his sleeves, he is also an associate of Judith Ralitzer: in fact, he claims, he's her "ghost"… as in, he's really the author of all her lauded novels. Are Huegette's favorite books really the work of a serial killer?

Fans of fine filmmaking will definitely want to catch this deadman's curve of a mystery: in addition to its original story and its expert direction, Roman de Gare just plain looks good. The locations and sets are realistic yet lovely, and the cinematography (by Gérard de Battista) is top-notch: I was even able to stomach the many driver' POV shots (something I usually hate). It's HD video transferred to film, and it seem to mine the best of both mediums.

Unlike the deceptive, turning twisting, now-you-see-it-now you-don't nature of Oscar-winning director Claude Lelouch's latest, I won't mislead you: Roman de Gare isn't a horror movie. It's got little in the way of blood and guts (there is, however, a shocking death scene). It's not scary, and it isn't especially suspenseful.

Yet, it's engaging, engrossing, thought-provoking and memorable — I can't say that about many of the truer genre pics I've seen in the past few months. And an added bonus? It's not PG-13, a remake of an 80s slasher, nor is it based on an Asian ghost story. (The only thing I didn't care for was the very end… but for obvious reasons, I can't go into why not.)

Roman de Gare opens in limited release on April 25, 2008.

= = =