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Starring Christian Bale, Emily Watson, et al. Released to DVD on October 19, 1999. ![[Photo]](/photos/metroland.jpg) Stanley Kubrick is the name du jour of 1999. First it was with breathless anticipation that the world awaited the release of his latest opus, Eyes Wide Shut. Then with the hype surrounding the censorship of the sex scenes in Eyes Wide Shut and Kubrick's untimely passing came more hype: how could so many people have overlooked one of America's greatest filmmakers for so long? Missed in all this was director Philip Saville's Metroland, a film that dealt with many of the same issues as Eyes Wide Shut and did so in a far more enjoyable, provocative and well-paced fashion. Set in England in 1977, Christian Bale stars as Chris, a former free-thinking college student who vowed, with his best friend Toni (Lee Ross), never to succumb to the life of 'metroland'; a wife, two kids, Volvo station wagon and a small house in the suburbs. After spending nearly ten years away from England traveling, partying and sleeping with a myriad of different women, Toni returns to London to find Chris married to Marion (Emily Watson) and living the metroland life that the two had so adamantly opposed during college. With Toni's interests remaining firmly in punk rock, anti-establishment behavior and casual sex, Chris begins to reminice about the times the two had together during their university days--a time when he shared those interests--and about whether his decision to move on, marry and start a family was the correct decision to make. Based on Julian Barnes's novel of the same name, Metroland is a fascinating look at what, basically, amounts to an early mid-life crisis. From its presence in Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life and 1990's Mr. Destiny to Saville's Metroland, the reflection upon one's own life and the choices one has made has always impressed me as being one of the more fascinating motivations for a lead character to possess. This is due partly to the compelling nature of watching someone's life unfold on the silver screen, and partly because it is something that everyone on earth can relate to, for we have all experienced a period of self-retrospection where we question our own supposed happiness. Brutally honest and quite realistic, with characters whose desires and thoughts were obvious and true, Metroland was everything Eyes Wide Shut tried to be and more. This is one of the best films to have been released in 1999.
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![[Photo]](/photos/metroland2.jpg)
![[Photo]](/photos/metroland3.jpg)
What was particularly interesting about Metroland's script was the way this material could have gone either way in terms of quality: it turned out to be well-conceived on all fronts, but, just as easily, could have also turned out to be a boring, long-winded movie that seemed more interested in preaching than anything else. The reason for this was the stunning chemistry between Bale and Watson. Warm and loving towards one another, the two leads came across as truly being a trusting, caring, married couple-the smallest interactions between the two seemed smooth and unforced, and their rapport in a scene shot in their bathtub strikingly intimate. This level of intimacy drew the viewer in on a much greater level than normal, which thusly made Chris' thoughts and feelings about his marriage seem all the more important.