Horseman on the Roof

We've come to expect that French movies - and, for that matter, most foreign films that play in this country - will concentrate more on character and story than the vast majority of American-made motion pictures. And that's certainly true of "The Horseman on the Roof."

But what may be surprising is how much thrilling action and adventure there is in this film, and how much more heartfelt and urgent it seems in the context of this story than in the many frivolous thrillers playing all over town right now.

The film's hero is an Italian soldier and patriot named Angelo Pardi (played by newcomer Olivier Martinez), who is a young member of the Carbonari, a secret society of horsemen bent on ridding Italy of Austrian occupation.

In the opening scenes, Angelo has been discovered and must flee for his life. And it isn't long before he is racing from village to village - with Austrian agents in hot pursuit - in an effort to get two bags of gold coins to his fellow revolutionaries to help with the fight.

Along the way, Angelo receives assistance from and eventually teams up with the aristocratic Pauline de Theus (Juliette Binoche, of "Blue" and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"). As they travel together, Angelo, ever the honorable and gallant gentleman, begins to have feelings for her - but he tries to put them aside, especially when he discovers that she is married and is desperately trying to locate her husband.

The story is set against the backdrop of rural 19th-century Italy and France, with lush landscapes beautifully photographed to deceptively bely a gruesome tragedy that is traveling across the countryside like the shadow of a dark cloud. A cholera epidemic has set in and is randomly killing the populations of entire villages.

This distressing subplot lends some real resonance to the proceedings, as Angelo and Pauline encounter tragedies in between encounters with Austrian spies who want to stop Angelo and French soldiers who are enforcing quarantines.

The pacing is expert, the action and derring-do work logically, serving to further the storyline, and Martinez and Binoche are wonderful in their roles.

One could complain that the ending seems a bit too pat and wraps up too quickly - and it does - but that's a minor quibble when you consider all that has gone before.

"The Horseman on the Roof" is a rousing adventure yarn and sumptuous love story that transcends what we have come to expect from those genres, qualifying as both gripping drama and high entertainment.

The film is rated R for violence and some gore, a few vulgar words and some nudity.