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Metroland
In late-1970s suburban London, Chris and Marion have settled into a comfortable yet all-too-predictable middle-class existence. Chris receives an unexpected visit from his free-spirited friend Toni, a reunion that reminds him of a more carefree time in 1960s Paris. Now, with lingering doubts about his marriage bubbling up, Chris must make the choice between revisiting his youthful abandon with Toni or facing the here and now with Marion.
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- Cast:
- Christian Bale , Emily Watson , Lee Ross , Elsa Zylberstein , John Wood , Bill Thomas , Lucy Speed
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Reviews
Pretty Good
best movie i've ever seen.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
"Metroland" (or "Metro-Land") is the name given to the affluent north-western suburbs of London served by the Metropolitan Line (originally the Metropolitan Railway). The name was first coined by the railway itself in 1915 as part of an advertising campaign; it was later popularised by the poet and architectural critic John Betjeman (himself a native of the area) and taken up by Julian Barnes who used it as the title of a novel.Barnes's novel deals with the contrasting fortunes of Chris and Toni, two school-friends who grow up in the area during the 1960s and 1970s. As teenagers in the early sixties both boys are rebellious and dissatisfied with what they see as the predictable, conformist lives of their parents and the other members of the prosperous North London bourgeoisie. They dream of escaping from their safe, cosy world to somewhere more exciting, especially to Paris which they see as a city of rebellion and progressive, avant-garde ideas. (Actually, France under de Gaulle was probably at least as politically conservative and socially conformist as Britain under Macmillan and Douglas-Home, but then "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest").The film (which has a different structure to that of the book) opens in 1977 with Chris, now aged around 30, and his wife Marion living precisely the sort of life which the younger Chris had hoped to escape. He still lives in the Metroland suburb of Eastwood and commutes by tube every day to an office job in central London. In Barnes's novel the suburb (a fictional one) was called "Eastwick"; this was presumably changed to avoid any association with John Updike's "The Witches of Eastwick", but "Eastwood" was probably not the best alternative as there actually is a town of this name in Nottinghamshire.Chris's quiet life is disrupted when Toni, whom he has not seen for around ten years, suddenly reappears. Toni is dismayed when he discovers that Chris has, as he puts it, "sold out" and adopted the bourgeois lifestyle he once rejected. In a flashback we discover that after leaving school Chris did indeed live for a time in Paris, where he had an affair with a French girl and tried to earn a living as a photographer. Although during this period he affected a contempt for all things English, he eventually returned to England after falling in love with Marion. (He met her when she was in Paris as a tourist). He still cherishes hopes of becoming an author, but his projected magnum opus is nothing more radical than a history of the London transport system.In his review of the film Roger Ebert wrote that "the movie is not about whether Chris will remain faithful to Marion; it's about whether he chose the right life in the first place". It is some time since I read Barnes's novel, but from memory that question seems to have been more finely balanced in the book than it is here. In Adrian Hodges's screenplay Toni becomes a rather more sinister figure than he was in the book; motivated by an ideological dislike of marriage as an institution, he makes a concerted effort to wreck Chris's relationship with Marion. Toni describes the secret of happiness as "doing what you want, not what others want", but to me this sounds more like a recipe for self-centredness. For all his talk about the wickedness of the "bourgeoisie", Toni is not motivated by any real commitment to an ideology such as socialism, commitment to anything or anyone other than himself being foreign to his nature. Towards the end of the film he talks about going to live in California and becoming a screenwriter for Hollywood, without considering whether such a move might constitute an even greater sell-out to the capitalist system than Chris's suburban lifestyle. Pace Mr Ebert, I cannot accept that the movie is not about whether Chris will remain faithful to Marion; his love for Marion is the one thing which prevents him from becoming as self-centred as Toni.The film does not deal with Chris and Toni's teenage years in as much detail as the book, and I felt it was a mistake to use the same actors to play them as boys; it would have been more convincing to use teenage actors. Christian Bale, however, is excellent in the main part of the film. He plays Chris as a man torn between nostalgia for the ideals of his youth and a sad realisation that those ideals were never really attainable in the first place. There is another excellent performance from Emily Watson- probably the best I have seen from her apart from "Hilary and Jackie"- as the sensible, practical Marion. Lee Ross is perhaps a bit one-dimensional as Toni, but then Toni is supposed to be one-dimensional, a teenage rebel of the week who cannot accept that his week ended about fifteen years ago.The film deals with the perennial question of the conflict between youthful innocence and adult experience, a conflict which much have seemed particularly intense to those who came of age in the idealistic sixties and then had to face the very different world of the seventies and eighties. ("The Big Chill" from 1983 also dealt with the gradual disillusionment of the hippies-turned-yuppies of the sixties generation, in that case from an American perspective). At the end of this film Marion asks Chris if he is happy. His reply is "Happy—if not now, never". 7/10 A goof. I know that house prices were lower in real terms in the seventies than they are now, but even so I doubt if even in 1977 a 30-year-old officer worker like Chris could have afforded that massive four-or-five-bedroom detached house in the North London suburbs. He refers to a mortgage, so we know he did not inherit it from his parents.
This movie "Metroland" is best enjoyed by those who are 25 or older and are looking for a way to fill a time slot either in the afternoon or in the evening. It is also one of those movies easily turned on to hear some noise coming out of the TV. It is also a movie which can be gotten into almost anywhere in the movie. Metroland is not very memorable and easily and quickly forgotten. No need to watch it again. Once is more than enough. The stars do okay in the movie. It is difficult to be memorable in a movie with little purpose except to entertain. This is what I call a "Busy" movie -- one that you can move around the house and still not miss much, but gives satisfaction of hearing the TV noise. Don't worry about the popcorn here. You'll be to busy to enjoy eating it.
I am not a critic. All I have to say is that I read that Christian Bale's sister said that this role in Metroland, as Chris, is the one that most represents Christian in real life. I saw him, in his role as Chris, the married with child, middle class husband, as one who looked back at his sexual awakening in Paris, and saw how good he had it with Marion,his wife, that what he really wanted, in the end, was commitment, stability, loyalty, and the sweet bliss that only marriage, covenant with one person, can bring. I thought the movie had a wonderful message and beautiful ending. He chose his wife in the end, the woman he fell in love with, not the fantasy. Bravo Chris, Bravo! Loved this movie. However, I am a very biased "critic" as I love everything Christian Bale has been in, as he is an incredible actor, my favorite, and brings it, no matter what the quality of the film.
... and this state of mind is Chris' (Christian Bale) concern throughout the film - it is about not going anywhere or doing anything, but being stuck in Suburbia with a wife and baby in 1970s Midlands. In particular, this is Chris' childhood friend's concern for him as he visits his old friend and sees what rut he appears to be in. Chris gradually starts to reflect on his younger years with the help from his mate Toni and remembers what a rebellious spirit he once was. This flashback device is efficient for the film as it further emphasizes the tediousness of Metroland by contrasting it to Chris' dreams and idealism as a young man.Metroland greatly showcases Christian Bale's versatility as an actor, stripping him of whatever traces of superhero glamour from Batman Begins that was left in his image. Here we can recognize his ability to portray a character that is a downright loser and we enjoy it. There is plenty of Bale-goodies in this film, not just in his acting performance. Credit should also go to the lovely Emily Watson as Chris' little Suburbian wife.Metroland is a fairly cute low-budget English film that occasionally borders on being severely depressing. Yet, this is compensated for by including the punk edge of the 1970s that takes the form of a disdain for the bourgeoisie and a rebellious attitude. All the Paris segments that Chris recalls are well-made and entertaining and by far the more memorable parts of this film. Everything else is nice, but forgettable. 7/10