Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), an insurance agent, has been married to Helene (Carole Bouquet) for 12 years. Their relationship is going through a rocky patch. As they prepare to leave Paris to pick up their two children from summer camp, she is late and Antoine is fuming, his anger fueled by drinks. On the road, they merge with the estimated two million people taking advantage of a summer holiday weekend. When he takes a detour to save some time, Helene is convinced that he doesn't know what he is doing. At a rest stop, he heads into a tavern for another drink while she waits angrily in the car.
Back on the road again, they fight and this time she says that if he leaves her alone again, she won't be there when he returns. Antoine pushes her and after another stop in a bar, he finds a note from her saying that she has taken the train to get the kids. Drunk and thrilled to be free of her for a while, he picks up a hitchhiker (Vincent Deniard) who turns out to be a dangerous escaped prisoner. There are road blocks everywhere. At last, Antoine has the chance to be a man, traveling with a fugitive, and daring to do and say things he has never done or said before.
Red Lights is a gripping and convincing psychodrama directed to Cedric Kahn and based on a novel by Georges Simenon. Jean-Pierre Darroussin gives a tour de force performance as the self-hating insurance agent who sees himself as a "wuss" and yearns to be given the chance to prove himself a real man who can take charge. The depiction of Antoine and Helene's troubled marriage is very realistic, along with all the tensions, irritations, and complications that can happen in a car on the road during a busy holiday.
