Patrice Leconte's fanciful odd-couple drama oozes flavorful, provincial atmosphere.

It is a perfected fable flashing across a screen.

The movie has the kind of texture and depth that will make true movie-lovers sigh with the pure cinematic, human grace of it all.

Start with Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, drain it of all adventure and period flavor, replace that with plenty of existential angst, serve it up in a coat of Gallic glaze, and the result would look something like Man On the Train.