Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

valadas You will follow this movie with much attention and interest in terms of images and scenes but I must confess I have found the story itself in terms of contents a bit uninteresting since the plot has some coincidences that make it somewhat unbelievable. A couple is going to fetch their children who are at a summer camp in the south west of France. They are going by car from the north. The husband is a drunkard and he not only drank a lot already before their ride starts but he also keeps stopping now and then to have a drink on bars along the road. They begin to have fierce arguments between themselves and she ends up by leaving the car on one of his stops. He is bewildered when he comes back to the car and doesn't see her. She had left a note saying she was going to catch a train. From then on a succession of appalling incidents take place making the course of events very dramatic. It's a movie that keeps you attentive and alert all the time despite the fact that the plot itself is not very interesting.

Ron Chow This is the first and only film I have seen by Cedric Kahn, so I have no way of judging if this is one of his better works, or less. I notice some reviewers expressed a total dislike for this film, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.As the film began, the drive took place, and the quibbles emerged between Antoine and his wife, I began to relate to the film because this scenario probably happens daily in many places across the world between a husband and a wife. What made this incident unique, and dramatic, is the other factors that came to play - encounters with a dangerous convict on the run by both protagonists, and Antoine's indulgence of alcohol resulting in him committing certain out-of-ordinary acts. I began to developed a sense of disdain for Antoine as the film progressed, until I saw redemption toward the end.This is a slow film that demands attention. It is one of the more memorable, contemporary French films that I have experienced in the past decade. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys French cinema.

robert-temple-1 We are all supposed to be shaking in our seats. After all, the director of this contrived and artificial piece of nonsense is confident that he has overwhelmed us with shock and horror. The problem is that nothing in the plot is remotely credible. Indeed, it is frankly impossible. Carole Bouquet and her husband are driving south from Paris and a convict has escaped from a prison. Husband and wife split up after a quarrel. One takes the train and the other drives. We are expected to believe that out of the sixty million people in France, the escaped convict on the same evening encounters only these two, separately! He rapes the wife on the train and tries to murder the husband in his car. He does these two things in separate places more or less at the same time. Surely this is carrying surrealism too far. Are we not entitled to the respect of some semblance of rationality in the plot of a film which is supposed to be a 'suspense' film? But it gets worse. The couple are supposed to be driving south to pick up their two children, aged 8 and 10, from summer camp. Despite this, they quarrel over nothing and the wife abandons the car. As for the husband, he has consumed several bottles of whiskey and numerous beers, is totally drunk, and is driving suicidally. What a way to pick up the kids! What is more astonishing is that we are meant to feel sympathy for the idiotic and irresponsible husband because, poor fellow, the convict whom he first approaches and then provokes turns on him. What a shame the convict didn't kill the useless twerp. What advanced state of decadence have the French media class entered now, when in film after film we are all expected to shed crocodile tears for despicable and loathsome characters? And this film was nominated for a prize at the Berlin Festival! What is going on? Has everybody gone completely raving mad? This film is not worth watching, and yet there are plenty of people around praising it. The characters are inhuman, and the plot is absurd. Somehow, somewhere, something very deep is going wrong with filmmakers in France, and their critics and festival juries. I called attention to this in my review of 'L'Enfant'. When the wholesome and delightful film 'Amelie' came out a few years ago, a chorus of French critics and media folk howled in protest about it and heaped abuse upon it in the press. There is a sickness, a deeply serious and growing sickness, amongst certain levels of the French media class. All sense of morality has been thrown overboard and a howling intolerance of anything wholesome arises from a baying pack of corrupt and arrogant media insiders. This is all very worrying for those like myself who love French culture and wish it to continue in some form which can continue to command some respect.

Philby-3 CAUTION - SpoilerThe French seem to have a very different idea from Hollywood about what constitutes a thriller. Hollywood likes to pitch a regular sort of guy into a baffling situation over which he has no control – Denzil Washington up against shadowy State operatives, or Harrison Ford against various bad guys, for example. The pace is fast and there is tension followed by a let-up at frequent intervals. We, the audience, identify with the protagonist and cheer for him or her to succeed. In this film there is a central character called Antoine who is stupid beyond belief – Homer Simpson is a philosopher by comparison – and who gets himself into a nasty but routine situation he could have easily avoided (if giving a lift to an escaped psychopath is routine). Then he blunders his way out of it. We sigh with relief at the end as he avoids a fate he richly deserves. Funnily enough he is almost sympathetic, for his one concern is the safety of his family – he might be thick but like Homer his heart's in the right place.There's plenty of tension though, built up in a different way. The camera spends a lot of time on close-ups, especially on Jean-Pierre Darroussin (of Marseilles movies fame), who plays Antoine. An air of menace is generated by car radio bulletins, heavy night-time road traffic, seamy roadside dives and Antoine's increasing intake of alcohol, which reaches almost incredible proportions. Most of the time is spent on busy French roads at and we spend a lot of time waiting for the inevitable crash.Jean-Pierre Darroussin turns in a remarkable performance. He is a sort of French everyman, an insurance company clerk married to a much more high-powered woman who is a corporate lawyer (Carole Bouquet – gorgeous as always). You wonder how they ever got together. Yet Darrousin somehow convinces us that the fate of this little man matters to her as well as to us.The original property, apparently was a story by the prolific French writer Georges Simenon of 'Maigret' fame, and the interrogation of Antoine by an extraordinarily well-briefed police officer is straight out of a Maigret episode. I would think the story has been updated a bit (career woman attorneys were pretty unusual in Maigret's day). I can't really think that the police would assume so readily that Antoine was not guilty of any crime – police officers are known more for their pedantry than imagination- but at least it helps the plot towards resolution.You won't like this movie if you don't like French films, but it is a vivid and absorbing entertainment, albeit about someone we pity rather than admire. It has not encouraged me to any do more driving in France, even in an apparently indestructible Rover.