The Man on the Train (2011)

This is a two Character Story about regret and missed opportunities and is fleshed out with a bouncy Performance from Sutherland with Rock Star Mullen standing in for the Role of the Professor's Polar Opposite. Mullen doesn't embarrass Himself with the Face of a road weary Soul, drained of energy and Life itself. But He really does nothing more than stand around, or sit around listening to "Words of Wisdom" with barely a reaction. This is not Acting it is showing up.This is a delicate Movie with Literary Quotes and What If? contemplations strolling along to a somewhat Metaphysical Conclusion. It is interesting and is engaging enough for this sort of Stuff about a gentile Egghead and a tough and smart Born Loser.Not the kind of Film for everyone and not the kind of Film that is on anyone's Best List. It is a Diversion, a way to escape from all the typical Hollywood Fare. This one is Laid Back and is couched in a Verbal rather than Visceral Style that is easy to like, but maybe just a little too aloof to Love.

I was a little reluctant to watch this as in the trailer Donald Sutherland's character comes across as a manipulative double crossing psycho.When I started watching the movie he was quite eccentric and I thought he was putting on an act. I was waiting the whole time for him to switch into a villain.The trailer was nothing like the movie, which was fantastic. I loved every bit of this, except found the very ending quite mismatched to the rest.A few tears, a few giggles and plenty of intelligent script.I expect the rating was low cause trailer made it appear to be an action movie.

Donald Sutherland is a retired professor of poetry living alone in a large Victorian house, listening to Schubert in most of his spare time. He meets a stranger, played by Larry Mullen, Jr.(yes, it is the drummer of the Irish rock band U2), a criminal type who is the complete opposite of the professor.Mr. Mullen can definitely give up his day job, he is the cinematic acting discovery of the year. His style is that of James Dean in "Rebel Without A Cause" or Martin Sheen in "Badlands," and he matches the veteran Sutherland in scene after scene. The two are terrific together. Mullen possesses a natural, charismatic charm.A major problem is the soundtrack, which frequently features a piano in the background at a volume clashing with the actors' lines; at times I was wishing for subtitles.The professor and the stranger with no name ponder each others lives, contemplating the paths they have chosen, a universal theme we can all relate to. The two leads keep it moving along and make it worthwhile.

The concept is interesting... a mysterious man shows up on a train and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a lonely old retired professor. He starts to case a bank for a heist, and you begin to think that maybe the professor is in on it.But then the film just bogs down. The slow pace must be intended to convey depth and ponderous sentiment, but instead it just ends up being boring. For a movie about a bank heist, there's almost no tension, just a lot of long pauses and close ups of Donald Sutherland and Larry Mullen Jr. And maybe I'm just dense, but I have no idea what happened at the end - is that the point? There are countless hidden references to literature that I must be missing, but it just isn't worth the effort. Not to mention the terribly inaccurate portrayal of surgery - they could at least have gotten the anesthesia right, and no hospital in the world would respond to a code that way. Bummer... I was hoping I'd discovered a sleeper gem.