A businessman asks his secretary Dany to run a few errands. Now in charge of a fine car, Dany decides to make a small detour. When the detour becomes large rather than small she doesn't panic immediately. Still, weird little details begin to worry her. Why does the kind lady owner of a café insist that she forgot her coat there, since she never visited the place ? Why do unknown traffic cops say that they've met her before ?
Looked at clinically, this is perhaps not the the most accomplished thriller ever filmed, with the intrigue (as explained in great detail near the end) heavily dependent on coincidences. France is a large, modern country, well provided with roads and highways : you're not going to tell me that a person travelling from A to B and a person travelling from B to A are automatically going to stop at the same cities and the same watering holes, they could take any of 15 routes. The story also contains some psychological inconsistencies. At one point the female protagonist meets a young man and sleeps with him. The viewer can understand the need for sexual validation and human comfort, but it is quite hard to get why this particular man would be acceptable, given that he has all the seductive charm of a sewer rat. In real life, 99% of all women - however damaged or lonely - would recognize Trouble with a capital T and run away screaming.
Still, the plot is striking and there's a lot of suspense. It's also hard not to feel a growing sympathy for Dany, an insecure loner who is still suffering from an unhappy love affair and the resulting abortion. Moreover, the poor woman is so short-sighted that she is helpless without glasses. When strange details begin to accumulate around her, both circumstances plunge her in a swirling fog of confusion and paranoia. Who, if anyone, can still be relied upon ? Can she even trust herself ?
Watch the movie : it is quite memorable.
Looked at clinically, this is perhaps not the the most accomplished thriller ever filmed, with the intrigue (as explained in great detail near the end) heavily dependent on coincidences. France is a large, modern country, well provided with roads and highways : you're not going to tell me that a person travelling from A to B and a person travelling from B to A are automatically going to stop at the same cities and the same watering holes, they could take any of 15 routes. The story also contains some psychological inconsistencies. At one point the female protagonist meets a young man and sleeps with him. The viewer can understand the need for sexual validation and human comfort, but it is quite hard to get why this particular man would be acceptable, given that he has all the seductive charm of a sewer rat. In real life, 99% of all women - however damaged or lonely - would recognize Trouble with a capital T and run away screaming.
Still, the plot is striking and there's a lot of suspense. It's also hard not to feel a growing sympathy for Dany, an insecure loner who is still suffering from an unhappy love affair and the resulting abortion. Moreover, the poor woman is so short-sighted that she is helpless without glasses. When strange details begin to accumulate around her, both circumstances plunge her in a swirling fog of confusion and paranoia. Who, if anyone, can still be relied upon ? Can she even trust herself ?
Watch the movie : it is quite memorable.