Word: metroland
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Metroland, Chris, a middleclass office employee living outside of London, has made this type of choice, and has now reached the stage where he has a pretty good idea of what the rest of his life will be like. Although it is set in 1977 and refers to the rebellious rhetoric of the '60s, the film tells a story that has a place in every generation. The situation presented to the audience demands sympathy and recognition. With the versatile Christian Bale as Chris and Oscar nominee Emily Watson as his levelheaded wife Marion, Metroland delivers a refreshing and insightful examination...
...early '60s, best friends Toni and Chris glorified everything French, fell in love with la vie boheme and, most importantly, rejected the suburban wasteland and lifestyle their parents submitted to. The mass of generic houses at the end of the London Underground Metropolitan Line, referred to as Metroland, disgusted and frightened these two aspiring artists (one poet, one photographer). The view of Metroland from the train is both boring and ominous-mile after mile of conformity, complacency and security...
...Paris sequence of the movie, in which a slightly older Chris is an artist/photographer/waiter, shows him trying to live out his dream. Metroland manages to portray the City of Light as it must have seemed to so many like Chris and Toni: the City of Life. Throughout the movie, but especially in Paris, the excited soundtrack and overlapping scenes and transitions give the sense that the city holds the key to everything Chris is seeking. The ultimate manifestation of the freedom he craves is found in his French girlfriend, Annick. One of the most passionately played characters of the movie...
...present (nine years later), Toni has traveled the world and is still scratching out tortured but unnoticed poetry, while Chris somehow ended up with a nice English girl, Marion, and a house in Metroland. Toni's intrusion into Chris' suburban bliss is literally a rude awakening. His visit is announced with a phone call that wakes the baby, but more than that, it awakens the desperation Chris has been quietly holding back. When Marion asks him what he has to worry about, Chris replies, "Nothing. That's what worries me." Toni forces him to ask himself, doesn't he like...
...Chris is forced to find an answer to the scariest question of all: did he make the right choice? Can he really be happy being everything he vowed he never would be? But the main questions are, what makes him happy and is he happy here and now in Metroland? A wise stranger warns the teenage Chris, "Metroland is not a place. It's a state of mind." As the movie artfully demonstrates, it is not very difficult to fall into this state of mind. Of course, it's not too late for him to change course and return...