User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 6 out of 16

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  1. Apr 6, 2012
    I love the movie! I understand however, that in some countries, like in the States, a movie like this doesn't have the same effect that what it has in Europe, Latin America or even in some areas here in Australia (i.e Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide that are more European-like) . In my case, this movie is 'my type', perhaps partly because of my European ancestry. I believe the exposure to European culture has given me a different perspective of things-besides the Australian- and that includes art. Nonetheless, I have to agree that the film could have been better, that is for sure! There were things to be improved and they could have prolongued the tension and twisted the plot a bit more, but I enjoyed it so much as it was, anyway! An excellent movie...original, well crafted, great performances...! A real delight! Expand
  2. FrankO.
    Jan 19, 2006
    For the initial two-thirds of the movie, I was hooked, plot pace was quick and unexpected. Once the story shifted to finding his wife, the movie losted its intensity and suspensefulness.
  3. TimC.
    Apr 2, 2005
    Seemed amateurish, i.e., bad acting combined with a weak plot. Comparisons with Hitchcock are overstated (maybe Hitchcock at his worst).
  4. VinceH.
    Nov 12, 2004
    I went into this film not knowing a thing about it, and left very surprised how much I liked it. Along with Michael Haneke's "Time of the Wolf", this is probably the most memorable French film I've seen all year. First of all, I LOVED Jean-Pierre Darroussin in this movie and his is by far my favorite performance by an actor this year. He is so utterly watchable and with his schlub-like demeanor and everyday looks he is like Olivier Gourmet without the intensity. The first 30 minutes of the film are very Chabrol-like, with its portrayal of a bourgeouis couple attempting to hide the seething rage/resentment under the surface. But once Darroussin picks up a shady character in a bar and offers him a ride, the film shifts tones dramatically and becomes a horror-inflected suspense film. Cedric Kahn masterfully handles shifts in tone and style. Scenes start from bright, clean, open Paris streets and restaurants to rock-music blaring, danky nightclubs to small French countryside villages. The locations are used to wonderful effect and help support the story. Also, I really love how Kahn films Darroussin's drunkeness and driving. The camera movements and scenes behind the wheel (where the camera sits in a static position and all we see are what he sees: hazy red streams of light and twisting streets). I really felt like we get a sense of what state of mind this guy is in as he is wasted out of his mind. And since the entire film is told from his point of view it is even more harrowing. Also, I must add to the bonehead who mentioned the brilliant scene where Darroussin uses a phone at a coffee shop and calls various hospitals and police stations searching for his wife. That is a virtuoso sequence and one of the best I've seen all year. The conversations are so intense and compelling that it almost feels like the whole thing was done in one take. We are really caught up in what is going on and who can't relate to that anyway? Expand
  5. GeoffB
    Oct 24, 2004
    Like the traffic jam setting of this movie, the action is frustrating and boring at the same time, with only spurts of interest and movement throughout. The worst scene of all involves endless phone calls to an endless number of hospitals and police stations. Pure cinematic torture.
  6. HoratioH.
    Oct 2, 2004
    Slow, dull and disappointing. Poor performances and a lackluster ending will disappoint those who suffer through the long setup. Stay away!
  7. TonyB
    Sep 28, 2004
    I was getting a little impatient at the pace for the first half, but then things got interesting, and it moved along nicely. I noticed two things that did not seem logical in the second half; but changing them would have totally changed what followed. It was still disappointing, otherwise I would have given it an 8.
  8. PatB.
    Sep 20, 2004
    My husband and I found this a very intense movie about two annoying people, a cold wife and a husband whose drinking at each stop along the way forecast doom. But the working out of the plot proved to be surprising and quite satisfying after all. Also we loved the look at the not so glamorous French back roads.
  9. DaveD.
    Sep 19, 2004
    This movie was pitiful. Soooo slow. The acting is weak. The twist in the end is not worth the deadening slow pace of the movie. Do not see this movie. Sure it's got elements of a thriller and suspense, but those elements only add up to a really bad made-for-TV movie.
  10. BillS.
    Sep 17, 2004
    This is the slowest film of all time and was not impressive in the least. Are all of these reviewers on drugs? This film was horrible and tests the viewers patience. It does not give you suspense, it gives you frustration. Don't see this movie unless you near comatose.
  11. Chief2762
    Sep 15, 2004
    Unfortunately emotional intensity is at its highest in the first third of the movie. But it remains at least interesting throughout, and the central performance couldn't be bettered.
  12. jayford
    Sep 14, 2004
    "Red Lights" has a very clever structure fleshed out in the most unassuming way possible. As a thriller it delivers: it has suspense, surprises, some shivers and poignancy. But don't expect these contents to come in the usual package. To start with, the movie's soundtrack is basically Debussy's "clouds". There's a section in the movie that reminded me of Michael Mann's "Collateral": a "good" man gives a lift to a "not so good" man. Fortunately, the "not so good man" doesn't like talking" and the "good" man, the one driving, is careless, to say the least. There are no city streets in these scenes, some traffic and road checks but mostly the road and a countryside hidden by the night. It works. Darroussin and Bouquet as the couple who go through this ordeal are terrific. Expand

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 28
  2. Negative: 2 out of 28
  1. The sights, sounds and traffic in Red Lights are oppressively ordinary; the people are unnervingly real. That reality doubles the suspense we might feel in a more slickly made but thinly plotted thriller.
  2. Reviewed by: Richard James Havis
    A classy and clever French thriller. Jean-Pierre Darroussin's performance as a browbeaten husband is entertaining, and Kahn's script brings wit and imagination to a straightforward story.
  3. 80
    With ruthless efficiency and wit, Kahn ratchets up unbearable tension and releases it in startlingly visceral fashion, but his placid denouement is the most chilling scene of all.