GreenCine Staff Pick: Petrice Leconte's The Man on the Train (L'Homme du train) is simple, elegant and darn near perfect. While all of his films, and this one is clearly no exception, have an almost too-meticulous feel to them, Man on the Train also has a charmingly low-key, frayed, and warmer feel to it, all of which is brought home even further with the rich performances by veteran actor Jean Rochefort (no surprise) and (bigger surprise) rumpled, leather-clad French rock singer Johnny Halladay. (As Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film, "In American terms, think of James Stewart and Johnny Cash.") Rocherfort plays a lonely, chattery retired schoolteacher due for a triple heart bypass, who intersects with Halladay's bank robber. They become friends over the course of a few days, and, of course, one sees how each could have easily become the other had certain things in their lives transpired differently. For what is essentially a simple two-character study, it's about as well-crafted as they come, with much heart, humor (there are even a few subtle nods to the French New Wave), and, ultimately, spiritual redemption. Man on the Train is also one of the few good, real films about male friendship in recent memory. -- Craig Phillips