It's the late '70s, and Christian Bale has a nice suburban home, a job, a child, and a wise and patient wife (Emily Watson). But when free-spirited childhood friend Lee Ross returns to visit, Bale begins to think his own life has become everything he once despised as an adolescent. Based on French-born British writer Julian Barnes' first book, Philip Saville's Metroland is a pre-midlife-crisis movie that gains a lot from its European settings and contrasting flashbacks. The more Ross expresses disdain for Bale's comparatively stifling nine-to-five lifestyle, the more Bale yearns for his younger years in Paris, where he fell in love with the liberated Elsa Zylberstein and later met Watson. Watching his friend behave as if he were still in his teens, Bale can't help but wonder if he's made the right decisions. Yet while he regrets the lack of surprises his life seems to have in store for him, it may be Ross who's jealous of Bale's apparent happiness and stability. Bale does a good job portraying the conflict between British repression and French bohemianism, but it's Watson who really stands out in an extremely subtle performance: It's a rare gift to be able to infuse what amounts to a background role with so much complexity. The same might be said of Saville's film: Though Metroland is hardly novel, it nonetheless packs a good deal of verisimilitude.