A cross-country trip turns out to be a nightmare for a troubled couple.A cross-country trip turns out to be a nightmare for a troubled couple.A cross-country trip turns out to be a nightmare for a troubled couple.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsAt the beginning of the movie, the main characters meet at a cafe in the late afternoon. They then go home and get ready to travel to Bordeaux to pick up their kids. On the trip to Bordeaux, they are stuck in heavy traffic. Although it is now early evening, the vertical shadows cast by the cars indicate that the traffic scenes were shot at mid-day.
- ConnectionsEdited into Le documentaire culturel: Le siècle de Simenon (2014)
- SoundtracksNuages
from "Nocturnes"
Written by Claude Debussy
Performed by Etienne Baudo and LOrchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris
Conducted by Manuel Rosenthal
Featured review
Two thirds of a good thriller
Red Lights does not disappoint for artful cinematic tension, mining the rich resources of the French thriller -- no one can craft a thriller like the French. As the story unfolds, the viewer is driven increasingly into unease by the movie's primary conceit: the sudden unraveling of the milquetoast male lead before and then during a road trip into the country (in the throng of traffic during French vacation season) to pick up the couple's kids from camp. This ultimately has disastrous consequences for both husband and wife, despite their separating early in the story.
There are very effective touches here, unique to the French thriller. I especially liked Kahn's fearless willingness to run a protagonist straight into the ground so we can watch him grossly err and see him swerve into disaster, a risk most American directors wouldn't have the guts to take. He infuriates us and we are in total fear for him all at the same time. I also liked the way that Kahn can imbue simple sequences, like a series of phone calls, with utter tension.
What I did not like was the encroachment of pat, storytelling elements. The resolution is purely canned, and in particular there is one coincidence in the movie that is so Hollywood -- so Jerry Bruckheimer -- that it made me wince in embarrassment. It almost seems that, at the end, another director altogether stepped in to take the helm.
Red Lights is definitely worth seeing, but Kahn should have stayed the course with his somber, bold storytelling, rather than chickening out as he did. A good movie that could have easily been better.
There are very effective touches here, unique to the French thriller. I especially liked Kahn's fearless willingness to run a protagonist straight into the ground so we can watch him grossly err and see him swerve into disaster, a risk most American directors wouldn't have the guts to take. He infuriates us and we are in total fear for him all at the same time. I also liked the way that Kahn can imbue simple sequences, like a series of phone calls, with utter tension.
What I did not like was the encroachment of pat, storytelling elements. The resolution is purely canned, and in particular there is one coincidence in the movie that is so Hollywood -- so Jerry Bruckheimer -- that it made me wince in embarrassment. It almost seems that, at the end, another director altogether stepped in to take the helm.
Red Lights is definitely worth seeing, but Kahn should have stayed the course with his somber, bold storytelling, rather than chickening out as he did. A good movie that could have easily been better.
helpful•285
- Larry-115
- Sep 14, 2004
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Kırmızı ışıklar
- Filming locations
- Cléré les Pins, France(The garage where Antoine has his tyre changed.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $673,828
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,202
- Aug 22, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $2,394,429
- Runtime1 hour 45 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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