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Feb 06, 2015Nursebob rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Three great directors give us three interrelated stories, all of which unfold on a train bound for Rome. An aging professor is returning home from a medical conference in Germany where he was smitten by a beautiful younger woman he met only briefly. Lost in a series of pleasant reveries about what might have been he begins to compose a rambling letter to her, a task that causes him to review his own life. Meanwhile, in another car, a truculent older woman has a series of ridiculous arguments with some fellow passengers while her handsome 25-year old assistant (boy-toy?) sneaks off in order to chat up a sweet young girl from his past. When the inevitable blow-up happens between the two of them she must face some uncomfortable truths about herself. Lastly, a group of coarse but well-meaning Scottish soccer lads on their way to a world cup game are having no luck whatsoever when it comes to tickets and chicks. But when fate places them in an ethical quandary involving a family of Albanian refugees they find themselves having to make one of the most difficult decisions of their young lives. I love the metaphor of a train; it’s a perfectly contained microcosm traveling along a preordained track yet there is always room for the unexpected. Here Kiarostami, Loach, and Olmi use it as a vehicle to explore the natures of truth and reality, conscience and responsibility. The final destination may be tied up a little too neatly, but the journey is still worth the price of a ticket.