everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The first half of "Roman De Gare" is riveting: the way writer-director Claude Lelouch, aided and abetted by Dominique Pinon's masterfully ambivalent performance, keeps us considering several different possibilities, and expecting the worst, brings to mind the classic Alfred Hitchcock rule about how suspense is created when you show the bomb WITHOUT having it explode. But after one key question is answered, the film loses some momentum, and the final revelations are not quite as thrilling as you'd wish them to be. Still, it's beautifully photographed, and the two women completing the main acting trio - newcomer Audrey Dana and veteran Fanny Ardant - are also exceptional. **1/2 out of 4.

France is a country where every person thinks of himself/herself as a writer or a writer in making as intellectualism runs high in French society.This is one of the reasons why book publishing industry is a major business in France which can give severe headaches to other leading traditional businesses such as cheese,wine and tourism.It does not matter to some writers that their books are not read extensively. It is precisely this artistic predicament French author Claude Lelouch has attempted to depict in his latest film "Roman De Gare"/Crossed Tracks.It is a pity that such a film with some cogent inventive elements falls flat primarily due to its technical as well as artistic shortcomings. One of the plausible reasons could be the fact that "Roman De Gare" is very much French in nature. A viewer should have a fairly good idea of French culture and language in order to comprehend hidden sub-themes.There are no many non Francophones who would be aware of culturally relevant facts such as : a) Gilbert Bécaud is a famous french singer, b) Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos De Laclos wrote "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", c) Serge Moati is not effective when he parodies French talk show host Michel Drucker's famous "Vivement Dimanche" show. Is it a mere coincidence that Claude Lelouch has decided to name his film's protagonist as Pierre Laclos ? A thriller is bound to fail if it does not have universal appeal.A glaring example of Frenchiness in "Roman De Gare" is revealed in scenes where we behold writers drafting their books on a luxury yacht sipping champagne unlike great writers of the past who toiled enormously in order to get their works acclaimed. In the past, Claude Lelouch has made better works. His film "La Belle Histoire" is a great exercise in occult film-making. It is rather unfortunate that "Roman De Gare" could not turn out to be a piece of cake for Mr. Claude Lelouch as he is no Alfred Hitchcock of France. A word about casting which is a downright disaster. It is great that Dominique Pinon has bagged the biggest role of his career but it is wasted as "Roman De Gare" is full of banal dialogs. Fanny Ardant acts so badly that one can easily hazard a guess that her mentor Monsieur Truffaut must be shamelessly groveling in his grave. She appears more as a boring jet-set socialite who does not know anything about writing. There is some air of crime,wine,book and cinema which would surely keep audiences on edge of their seats but after a while everything would become plain. This is something which audiences must keep in mind when they go to watch this film.

When I can, I try to come here shortly after having seen a movie before I can intelectualise it too much or...forget half of it. I have just watched "Roman de Gare", came home and checked IMDb! Having left France at 27 and some 40 years now. Roman de Gare pointed me in the direction of romantic story in trains or train stations. I guess I was partly on the right track but reading other's comment I do agree with "typical Novel one would buy at the station to fill time on the train journey". (I'm not familiar with "airport novel" but imagine it must be very similar) All this,though, did not prepare me much for what was to come. I did enjoy the "trip" but I had some reservation about the twists and turns it took. I do mind improvisations that mislead almost solely for the sake of misleading. Personally I would have preferred to see these improvisations done in a much smarter way instead of being there just because we are told these 'situations' are there with 'would be' links but we have to guess what is what.I probably would have enjoy the story just as much or even better if it had been simpler but kept the main element in one direction. Instead I found we were told a fairly straight forward story with, a lot of adds on that really did not do much beside confusing the audience but to lead to a rather conventional ending. It is possible I'll have a different reaction on a second viewing, however today, I had a good time but I found there was something not quite right for me.

After the unfair successive failure of the aborted trilogy of "La Comédie Humaine", we thought that Claude Lelouch was broke for a long time whereas Roman de Gare is released less than 2 years after "le courage d'aimer", the second and final opus of the forecast trilogy. Shot in secret with a nom de plume, Roman de Gare recalls a little of the freshness of the Lelouch of the 60's, but also lacks of the grandeur we were used to: the image quality is pretty poor, the cast is not all stars, though Fanny Ardant, Truffaud's egerie is superb as usual, we feel Lelouch had really little money to shoot; not a great music as usual(late Gilbert Becaud was a respected French singer, but the choice of the songs does not highlight the scenes to my feelings), the story is centered on a murder story, but is actually a pretext to demonstrate once more the human and love relations that the director is famous to be a passionate of. Not the greatest Lelouch, but not boring either due mainly to an unusual funny script and a pretty good acting.