For his part, John has no choice but to take the Frenchman's place-as master of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a large and embittered family, and keeper of too many secrets. His French companion is gone, having stolen his identity. It is not until he awakes the next day that John, the Englishman, realizes that he may have spoken too much. Over the course of a long evening, they talk and drink. Two men-one English, the other French-meet by chance in a provincial railway station and are astounded that they are so much alike that they could easily pass for each other.
Director-writer Charles Sturridge has done this before (the Brideshead Revisited original TV series, A Handful of Dust) and here he does it again.Someone jolted my elbow as I drank and said, 'Je vous demande pardon,' and as I moved to give him space he turned and stared at me and I at him, and I realized, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were known to me too well. The sum of the movie is more than its parts. The magic in this movie creeps up on you slowly, and is not fully felt until the very end. It's also about thinking of your life as it might look from the outside, as viewed by a stranger taking your place what would he see that you're missing? Count your blessings, you fool! Lovely performances by all, but especially Matthew Rhys in the lead role. This is a story about wish-fulfillment and the freedom of discovering in yourself a whole new set of possibilities. So don't expect one of those thrillers with a water-tight plot and gritty realism.
The story maintains a pose of realism even as it verges into the fantastic. But the feeling here is not of absurdity, but rather whimsy. Is it really possible that any two unrelated strangers could look so much alike that not even a mistress, wife, or mother could spot the difference? Well, no. The premise is, of course, completely absurd.
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