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Metroland | 
| Director: Philip Saville
Actors: Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Lee Ross, Elsa Zylberstein, Rufus
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
Buy Used: CDN$ 92.02
Rating:  7 reviews
Format: Import, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Pan Scan
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0783240252
UPC: 025192072628
EAN: 9780783240251
ASIN: 0783240252
Theatrical Release Date: 1997
Release Date: March 28, 2000
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Delivered from USA within 10 to 15 business days. All our books are backed by 100% customer satisfaction, 24hr customer service and money back guarantee!
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.com
IMetroland/I, based on Julian Barnes's first novel, is a tale of midlife, middle-class malaise reminiscent of Ang Lee's IThe Ice Storm/I. It's 1977, and shaggy-haired thirtysomething Chris (Christian Bale) has a lovely wife (Emily Watson) and baby, a solid office job, and a nice house in the London suburb of Metroland. Life is good, until the surprise arrival of old chum Toni (Lee Ross), whom Chris has not seen for 10 years and who was his accomplice in teenage shenanigans and heady visions of a bohemian life abroad. Toni, an inveterate ladies man and rootless poet, disdains his old friend's bourgeois milieu and feels it his duty to revive Chris's passion for women, art, and rock roll. Meanwhile, Chris can't stop fantasizing about his steamier days as a 20-year-old in Paris with his sultry French girlfriend, and fails to notice that Toni covets his wife and that she has sexual desires of her own. While there's a palpable sexual energy in the movie's proceedings that adds a certain Izing/I to the themes of angst and longing, their eventual epiphanies are disappointingly benign. Lee Ross's swashbuckling Toni and Emily Watson's intelligent, knowing wife carry the movie. I--Rebecca Wright/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 The grass is greener May 9, 2002
infatuationjunkie (San Jose, Ca)
This is the first movie that I've seen that depicts a good marriage in a realistic way. Married people are not immune to wanting to have sex with other people, they just weigh those wants against the value of their marriage. This film takes a look at one man's quarter-life crisis spurred on by the arrival of his devil-may-care childhood buddy. It is an exhamination of what one has versus what he invisioned he would have, and a realization of whether or not he is happy. This film is a glimpse at life, not sappy or overly-dramatic, just good.
Fairly interesting look at the married life. February 2, 2002
Brett Johnson (Phoenix, AZ - USA)
Some people assume that they will stay young and single forever. Sleeping around, partying, no familial responsibility...sounds pretty good right? Metroland takes a look at the life of Chris (Christian Bale). Chris is a married thirty-something living in a nice part of town and has a stable job. All seems content in his life. Then one day out of the blue, his old buddy Toni shows up. Toni tries to bring Chris back into his world of the single life filled with hot women, smoking pot and hanging out at parties. This causes Chris to take inventory of his current life and the decisions he has made. Some of this film is in flashback. It shows Chris as a 21 year old photographer in Paris, where he meets the carefree Annick (played wonderfully by Elsa Zylberstein). He eventually meets Marion (Emily Watson), who is another Brit like himself currently in France. She develops a very low-key bond with Chris and eventually they marry. Was it the right choice?pMetroland has a superb cast which plays their roles in just the right manner. Where this movie falters, however, is the mediocrity of the script. An introspective movie such as this should have much more powerful and memorable dialogue than it has. Hardly anything ever really comes out and grabs you. It just kinda rolls along and eventually reaches its conclusion. It could've been a great look at the choices we make and where it ends up placing us in life. As it is, however, it falls short of greatness...but it's still worth a look.
If you liked 'American Beauty'.... November 12, 2000
you'll love METROLAND, a gentle, bittersweet British film that explores the extremes of middle-age male sexual frustration in the same way - sans violence, of course. Christian Bale, oft cited as one of the biggest stars on the Internet, demonstrates why with an incredible range portraying Chris Lloyd at ages 17, 21 and 35. Subtle changes of mannerism and perspective make Bale's work very satisfying - none of that 18-to-80 aging make-up for Bale!pEmily Watson as Chris' wife is deviously delicious as the manipulative girlfriend and wife. The rest of the cast is superb - from the effervescent Elsa Zylberstein to the grumpy Lee Ross - METROLAND is a must see for Baleheads and intelligent drama.
 The acting was good but...... November 2, 2000
gerby (Washington, DC)
Generally, I was disappointed. I thought the denouement was lame. I kept expecting something dramatic to happen and at one point, I thought, hey - the climax could go in so many directions. I was starting to feel a good anticipation and then it anticlimaxed for me. Metroland was cool after all. Snore. While the Chris character was a bore - his wife, with her banked fires, had him pegged - he wasn't very original, I really liked Toni. If only they hadn't portrayed him as a girl of the month club member. If they had focused more on passion and career choices, instead of the typical sex and women choices, it could have been more complex and compelling. Instead, it opted for the ironically 'safe' route - Oh goody! It's okay to be bourgeois. Well, maybe for Chris but I see a midlife crisis down the road for the wife, who seemed a much more interesting character than her husband. I guess I just didn't buy the premise. Sure Toni was jealous but they could've had Chris realize that he had sold himself out TOO much and just move the family to Paris for another go at photography. Now THAT would've been a better movie.
I have to know French? But I took Italian in high school! April 20, 2000
I have not read the book that this film was based upon, so I won't comment in that vein, but I will say that I enjoyed the film very much... until it got to France. pThere is an entire sequence in the film, a key part I might add, where Christian Bale's character looks back to his days in Paris, young and hungry on life while trying to be a photographer. There are entire conversations in French with nary an English subtitle in sight, and I just sat there trying to follow along. (There are subtitles that you can access, but they follow the scene in French as well)pYou don't get lost too much and the characters revert to English eventually, but what a tremendously odd way of presenting what was actually looked to be some of the best parts of the film. Perhaps the film never had the English subtitles to begin with? And if so, why? (These are rhetorical, folks.)pA good film but Lion's Gate needs to get their act together with the DVD's (no widescreen-humbug!). Bye!
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