Night Train to Lisbon

A teacher of classical languages in Bern saves a woman about to jump from a bridge. She disappears, leaving behind a book in Portuguese and a train ticket to Lisbon. He walks out of his class and takes the train. The film builds an investigation into the book's author and tells the resistance under Salazar in flashback. The narrative cannot hold the present and the past equal; the strength is in the past. Bille August directed. Jeremy Irons leads, with Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Ganz and Lena Olin in the cast. It is adapted from Pascal Mercier's novel. Who it's for: those who like calm drama that moves through a book and a city. Who it's not for: viewers expecting the novel's philosophical density; the film largely reduces the text to a mystery.