What a masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2005)

We start off with a great shot of what reminded me of a waterfall, a blurry torrent of color, which metamorphoses into moving train-tracks seen from above. This opening shot already had me hooked. On the train, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, the best screen couple that I have seen, meet by chance, and a fantastic, intelligent and also very sad love story evolves.
What I love about this film is that it does not try to be Hollywood style in its dealing with love. There are no dumb subplots going on, no comic relief - a welcome relief from the mass of romantic comedies being pumped out these days - and no Hollywood ending. The story is stripped bare, and in its simplicity is uncannily real. This stark, real-life story is brilliantly portrayed by hugely long scenes done on just one shot - I don't want to think how many takes some must have taken.
The plot is basically that an American boy meets a French girl on a train, they talk, get off together, talk a lot more, and fall in love. I won't even try to summarize it more than that: the plot is not important in this film. The dialog and the characters are what it focuses on. The actors portray them beautifully with some really sweet scenes, and the dialog is stunning.
All in all, I was blown away when I saw this film. It put me in a very reflective mood, and left me stunned by its frank and realistic approach.