Metroland

Metroland (1997), based on Julian Barnes' novel and directed by Philip Saville, is available to watch online on iFILM. Christian Bale plays Chris, a suburban Londoner in the late 1970s who has settled into a life comfortable enough to count as a choice.

Then his old friend Toni, played by Lee Ross, drops in from nowhere — still untethered, still unreconstructed, still a reminder of the Paris years. Chris spent his twenties there, shooting photographs and falling for a French woman named Annick. Emily Watson plays his wife Marion with a steady warmth that makes her easy to underestimate. The film cuts between decades, quietly asking which version of Chris was the real one. Bale makes the question hang in the air without forcing an answer. Stream Metroland (1997) on iFILM.