METROLAND
Adele Tan
Directed by: Philip Saville
Cast: Emily Watson, Christian Bale, Lee Ross
Rating : ****
Official Web Site: Metroland at Geocities
This Review Filed: 16 July, 1998.
Taking on different tracks
The next time someone tells you that you just might become your father or mother, you better believe it. METROLAND urges us to doubt not that the youthful Bohemian aspirations of our youth, at odds with latent bourgeois ideals, will either blow up in our faces or become wistful itches that visit themselves upon our mid-life crises. And when at the probervial crossroads once more, we come ever so close to crossing to the other side of the fence. This roughly appears to be director Philip Saville's filmic dictum, and his observations are spot on.
![[ Pic from METROLAND ]](/film/images/metroland2.jpg)
Life's dichotomy of choices and contradictions are embodied in the juxtaposition of two childhood buddies growing up in the English commuter suburbs at the end of the metro line, and illustrated in the divergent paths they tread upon adulthood. Chris Lloyd (Christian Bale from EMPIRE OF THE SUN and THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY) is a mildly successful commercial artist living an uneventful middle-class lifestyle of Sunday car washes. His contented life includes a wife, Marion (Emily Watson from BREAKING THE WAVES) and a baby girl. All is fine and dandy when out of the blue, his best pal Tom, (Lee Ross from SECRETS AND LIES) walks back into his life to rock his boat, and convictions.
And so Tom becomes a Dickensian ghost of memories past, a struggling writer of dubious talent but no less a symbol of youthful angst, radicalism and artistic ideals (or pretensions), appealing to Chris' own unfulfilled ambitions. Tom's presence shifts Chris onto shaky ground, jolting him into questioning his present state, sexual frustrations/boredom, and whether he has sold-out on his dreams of becoming a photographer in Paris. This triggers a series of flashbacks to his teen years in Paris, living it up with sleep-in girlfriend cum muse Annick (Elsa Zylberstein) and a few pretty funny scenes of his wild imaginings, a last ditch attempt at trying to enjoy punk concerts and sexual misadventures that backfired. Ultimately, he realises that his own life is worth preserving.
Written and adapted by Adrian Hodges from a novel by Julian Barnes, METROLAND takes a witty and somewhat wry look at life's decisions and provides honest and sobering revelations without coming across as preachy. METROLAND's occasionally saber-like lines ("You're not original enough not to," Marion tells Chris when he asks her how she knows he will eventually get married) reflect generations of youths who aspire to esoteric lifestyles, yet find out that their fates are less than extraordinary. The film does not so much espouse the inevitability of fizzled ideals but rather the ironic nature of life. The metro also becomes a pseudo metaphor for the film- grandiose ambitions (that may or may not work out),which get transformed into albeit boring but vital lifelines of stability.
The film also wonderfully recreates the atmospherics of 1977 and before. Staid but robust middle-class London is contrasted with the beatnik scene in Paris, and highlighted with shades of punk promiscuities. The feel is of a society in uneasy compromise, in a period of redefining its culture. Still, there are gaping plot holes, and the plot develops unsatisfyingly. We get no real sense of why Chris would choose Marion instead of Annick, for example, and I am bothered by the fact that nothing really ever happens to Chris, which I think is a cop-out situation. Chris thus lacks a redefining moment and the film's conclusion ties things up all too nicely.
Despite all this, METROLAND is lifted by strong, convincing performances from all sides. Bale carries his transitions in age and personality with much dexterity and Watson brings to Marion the homemaker lively intelligence and grit. Outstanding supporting performances also from Ross and Zylberstein and never has the cute exotic girlfriend been displayed with such a combination of ditziness, smarts and emotionality.
So, for all those times that we have looked over to the other side of the fence, METROLAND reminds us that we might never cross it, much as we like the view over there and perhaps the best thing is for us to keep to our side of the fence.
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