Milos Hrma (Vaclac Neckar) is a go-getter. What he’s trying to get, and how
good he is at achieving it, well, that’s up for debate. But he will try to get
it none the less, and that’s what counts.
Closely Watched Trains is Milos’
coming of age story -- and what a delight, for us, it is. He works as a train dispatcher in Nazi occupied
Czechoslovakia, and he spends his days desperately trying to impress everyone
around him, especially a young, sultry female train conductor (Jitka Bendova). Milos is naive
and clueless, but he’s also chipper and enthusiastic. He’s teased, which he
doesn’t quite mind, except on the subject of sex, which he’s still a bit
inexperienced with. The film suggests realism, observing the everyday lives of
Milos and his co-workers, and frankly and wryly depicting and discussing sexual
mores. But the film is also buoyed with a fanciful, whimsical sensibility.
Often the film plays like a delightful farce, and more than one moment is a
piece of pure comic absurdity. Director Jiri Menzel contrasts the seriousness
facing the Czechs under the Nazi regime with Milos desperate and irreverent
journey to get deflowered. Like the titular trains that should be but aren’t
watched, Milos misses the very history that he is part of and even occasionally
defining. But like all of us, he's got bigger concerns on his mind.
Grade: A-
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