"Metroland isn't a place. It's a state of mind." So says a retired worker, a passenger on a train, to Christian BALE, after they both take some shots at the provincial life of the bourgeois. Bale comes under the influence of an old friend, Toni (LEE ROSS), who reminds him of all the fun they had as swingers in Paris during the '60s.
His patient wife at home fully understands his wanderlust. Meanwhile, we see through flashbacks what his life style was like in Paris, unlike the comfortable middle class life he's living in London with his wife (EMILY WATSON). Watson is the kind of pragmatic wife who even suggests casually that he should be having an affair.
It's that kind of story. A man caught up in the everyday suburban life with wife and baby clinging to him longs for days of yore and sexual freedom--or at least he thinks he does. All along we're given to think his wife was right about him--he's just an ordinary guy and really not like his best friend, the vagabond poet played in frenzied, sometimes flamboyant style by LEE ROSS, who is incapable of settling down and is perhaps envious of Bale's suburban bliss.
Sometimes sad, sometimes funny (the painfully clumsy first sexual experience), it never quite lives up to its potential despite some sensitive performances.
Best moment: Before his marriage to Emily Watson, she tells him she's sure he's going to get married some day. "Why?" he asks. "Because you're not original enough not to."
Summing up: There are no startling revelations and this examination of compromised dreams remains a rather ordinary drama.
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