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Late one night, in a gas station somewhere in France, Huguette (Audrey Dana) suddenly finds herself stranded and alone. She’d been on her way home with her fiancé (a doctor!), who was about to meet her family for the first time. But after a few hours in the car with her, he’d had enough—and he left her behind.
But Huguette isn’t completely alone. A stranger (Dominique Pinon) follows her into the station and tries to cheer her up with some magic tricks. And when she tries to get some sleep, she wakes to find that he’s been watching over her. He even offers to give her a ride to her parents’ house.
As the two travel together, Huguette tries to figure out who this mystery man really is. Is he really what he says he is—a high school teacher who’s just left his wife and kids? Is he—as he later confesses—the ghostwriter for Huguette’s favorite novelist? Or is he really the serial killer who’s just escaped from prison—a man who sets his victims at ease with a few magic tricks before luring them to their death?
Roman de Gare is a smart and spellbinding French mystery, in which writer/director Claude Lelouch brilliantly messes with his viewers’ heads. As the intricately detailed story unfolds, the audience is held at an arm’s length. Like Huguette, you won’t really know who this mysterious character is—or which (if any) of his stories is the truth. With every new hint, you’ll think you know the answer—only to be thrown off again a few minutes later. You’ll be held in suspense, wondering if he’s going to write about Huguette…or kill her.
But even when the pieces of this multi-faceted mystery begin to come together—only to reveal another, completely different, mystery—you’ll be even more amazed…by how clever it all is. Though you’ll probably be able to figure out some parts of the mystery, you’ll still find yourself on the edge of your seat, eager to see what other tricks Lelouch has hiding up his sleeve.
This delightfully twisted and tangled film will keep you guessing from start to finish. It’s smart and suspenseful, but it still has a wonderful sense of humor, too. Unfortunately, the end does fall a bit flat—it’s not quite the bang that I was hoping for—but the rest of the film is so clever and captivating that it’s still a must-see.
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