Man on the Train (2002) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Dave ★★★★

  A brisk, thoroughly absorbing drama about two very different men who admire each other’s lifestyles. It’s a peculiar film, filled with rich details, a catchy score, subtle humor and gorgeous photography. It works well as a study of two men, past their prime, who appreciate one another in a way no one else ever has. Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort are so effortlessly wonderful in these roles.

  And surprisingly enough, "Man on the Train" haunted me for a long time.

• Review by Monsieur Flynn ★★★★ 3

  #10 My Year Abroad; France

  Patrice Leconte is one of those directors hardly anyone mentions--although the late Roger Ebert had a great deal of respect for the man--but he's been a personal favorite of mine ever since I watched 'The Girl on the Bridge' and 'Monsieur Hire' not far apart back in the day. Both really hit home with me, and impressed me in different ways. I've seen a handful of his other movies as well throughout the years, but none have come close to those two--although I've never been left cold over any of his movies. It's not like he's kept knocking them out of the park, but his voice have always found me to a certain degree. That's…

• Review by Robin Hislop ★★★½

  Engaging examination of regret and what might have been. Halliday and Rochefort are terrific as two very different men who strike up an unusual friendship, and the first 2 thirds of the film are pleasurable because of their philosophical discussions and flashes of dry humour. The last act has an surprising mirrored structure and takes a somewhat open-ended, almost magical turn. A little gem.

• Review by noir1946 ★★★★½

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Even though Patrice Leconte's gentle meditation about friendship and aging in set in present-day France, it is, in many ways, a tribute to the spaghetti Westerns of the 60s and 70s. It opens with Milan (Johnny Hallyday), whose name suggests an Italian connection, arriving in a sleepy provincial town on the train, much like Charles Bronson at the beginning of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, the greatest of the Italian Westerns. Hallyday even bears a resemblance to Bronson.

  Suffering from a headache, Milan wanders into a pharmacy for a cure and meets Manesquier (Jean Rochefort), a retired teacher. Because the village's only hotel is closed for the winter, Manesquier offers to let Milan stay at his…

• Review by Bill Shannon ★★★★

  A very good, offbeat story of a mysterious man named Milan (Hallyday) who is quickly befriended by a kindly old poetry professor named Manosquior (Rochefort) on his first night in a sleepy, small French city.

  Though it appears that drama will ensue, it takes a pleasant left turn into lighthearted friendship instead. In one another, each man sees what he has lacked: for Milan, it is the peace and quiet and contentment of books and a comfortable home. For the spry but lonesome professor, it is the danger, excitement and risk against which he has long protected himself.

  While there is a crime plot (which gives the film a "ticking clock" of sorts), it becomes secondary to this strange, sweet, and complementary friendship. It's short, and never strays into dullness, at a breezy 90 minutes. The two leads' bond is touching in that they are clearly so different, but find in each other what they have been missing.

• Review by Peaceful Stoner ★★★★ 1

  The most beautiful way, a Human being can think of explaining,

  The Grass is always Greener on the other side of the valley.

  # No Pun intended.

• Review by Jake Ziegler ★★★★★ 2

  I loved this movie the first time I saw it, and re-watching it 20 years later I don't love it any less. It's a simple story, beautifully told by French auteur Patrice Leconte. The two lead performances by Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday are simply sublime.

  Full discussion coming soon to the Never Did It podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

• Review by gaia ★★★★½

  I love how Leconte commits to poetry over realism. He has characters and objects dissolve in and out of the frame, filling spaces or leaving them empty, like ghosts - and aren’t these men sort of already dead, both knowing from the start they have an appointment in Samarra on saturday? He has Halliday walk into town like the Man With No Name, and he portrays the meeting between the two leads as the pivotal, fateful moment it is: eyes locked acroos the room, a nod, we’ve always known each other if only in dreams of a different life. And then, of course, there’s the ending, a little, magical miracle.

• Review by russman ★★★

  Rejected sequel ideas: Girl on the Train

• Review by Jeff Williams ★★★★

  An engaging Patrice Leconte bromantic drama with some nice chemistry between leads Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday and a western-flavored musical score that somehow doesn't feel out of place. Leconte, like many of his fellow directors of the era, had a little too much love for the blue filter, but it fortunately doesn't interfere too much in an otherwise disarming character piece.

• Review by Michael Wilson ★★★★★

  Fascinating Neo-Noir concerning a mysterious man who arrives in a small French city with plans to rob a bank. His life intersects with an older man who is dissatisfied with his boring existence. Rock and roll legend Johnny Hallyday stars.

• Review by Noel Penaflor ★★★★

  A genteel absorbing drama about two men from vastly different walks of life and the road not taken.

  The film is about 90 minutes long but by the end you wish it were longer.

  If you're a fan of Before Sunrise/set and After Midnight, this is exactly like that only except for Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke you get two old French guys.

  Alternate Titles Include-

  Train Man

  Run A Train On These 2 Men.

  The Girl On The Train (but with no Girls just the previously mentioned 2 old guys)

  Fucking Subtitles

  Amber Waves of Train