An elegant and very successful novelist, Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant), finds herself in the police station being questioned about the disappearance of her secretary. A hairdresser, Huguette (Audrey Dana), has a vicious argument with her fiancé at a gas station; he is so infuriated with her that he drives off in her car leaving her in tears. A mysterious stranger (Dominique Pinon) witnesses their fight and tries to cheer her up — to no avail. He then offers her a ride, and realizing her boyfriend is not going to return, she reluctantly accepts. The stranger has been listening to the radio and reports that a serial killer has escaped from prison and is on the loose. Huguette has a bad case of the blues and blames herself for the sad state of her life. She's going to the family farm and asks the stranger to play her fiancé in front of her parents, brother, and teenage daughter.
Meanwhile, a bereft woman reports that her husband has been missing for days. Spending time describing things in the police station, she falls in love with the detective who dutifully listens to her plight. When her husband returns, she is delighted to hear that he is leaving her. She is ready for a new life herself.
"I shall always be a priest of love and a glad one," the novelist D. H. Lawrence wrote. The same could be said of French filmmaker Claude Lelouch. Roman De Gare is his 49th movie, and it glides along with fluid ease as these dispersed characters eventually unravel the ties that bind them together. We are in the presence of people who live diminished lives and fabricate stories about themselves to others. Even the famous novelist who spins tales for a living has some dark secrets that no one else knows. Love is the holy grail they all are seeking but instead of taking them into a land of honey it leads to a landscape where everything is askew and off-kilter.
The two most unappealing characters by the end are transformed into something different before our eyes. The mysterious stranger who gives Huguette a ride is a creative fellow who is alert to the wonders manifesting before his eyes. And the hairdresser who has such a temper and low self-esteem softens as she opens to the strange circumstances of her fate. Roman De Gare is a playful, delightful, and surprising exploration of love's mysterious ways.
