In the first part of the movie when the Portuguese woman is tackled by the teacher character I felt that thud. What happened next is an anti climax. Instead of a conversation about what was happening we got a kind of non-physical shrug and some vague agreement that the woman will go with the teacher back to his place of work. The movie is about pivotal moments and about what might have been. It is about memories and places and while there is physical travel it is more about about experience and the alternate possibilities that draw us into the story. I did like the sense of revelation that the teacher - Raimund was on a journey to get in touch with part of himself. At various times he seems oblivious to his context and other times quite the artful observer but only second hand through the eyes of the poet whose life he is researching. That poet was a bit of a philosopher which resonates with our Professor / teacher character. There is a key moment early on his trip to Portugal where a cyclist collides with him and breaks the lens in his glasses. This is a very clunky metaphor to show us the character quite literally seeing events in a new way. His new glasses will take some getting used to says the Portuguese woman who is also an optometrist - a doctor of sorts. The parallel story of the professor and the optometrist is somewhat muted but it does counter balance the historical back story which is revealed to us through the memories of various characters using flashback sequences. What works well in the movie is a series of cameos from older actors. The philosophical tone of the book is also perceptive. The way we notice the multiple levels or layers in the story is also gentle and unforced.What doesn't work so well is way everyone speaks English when Portuguese and subtitles would have been a better choice. I'm not sure if Jeremy Irons is supposed to be Swiss or English but he does appear to speak Spanish and Portuguese as a professor of languages would. It is just I can't remember the last time I saw Irons in a film and he always seems to be very English so maybe a less typecast actor would have been better in that role. As a series of reflective observations on life and how some moments can bring big changes I enjoyed this somewhat oblique story.

I've always wondered why certain countries in this large planet of ours are never or seldomly reported on. You would have to pick up a major newspaper from every country on our planet to find out, on a daily basis, and have an incredible memory. In the case of Swiss professor Jeremy Irons, the chance encounter with a book leads him to Portugal where he finds the sister of the book's author and ends up involved in a mystery concerning the 1974 Carnation Revolution, disturbing several people who are still willing to share the memories, even though it is a past that they would rather forget.Veteran actress Charlotte Rampling plays the aging sister of the one time writer who became a hero to her years ago by saving her life, making her overprotective of him and controlling in her efforts to thank him. She's initially cool to him, but finds she can't stop talking about him, making Irons more determined to tie everything together.While the plot is extremely complex and the flashbacks take forever to reveal anything of consequence, the wait is worth it. The film certainly is majorly flawed, and there are definitely too many characters. But there is detail here that can't be missed, reminding us that the world around us has seen much horror, a lot of which we are unaware of. That makes this an interesting piece of education, even if much of it is fictional. Much of it reflects the truth once you get more involved and do your own research.

Well, I don't give reviews very easily and I can count for how many movies I have given my honest review. Everything has been said about this movie by other peoples and mostly almost all are positive. First thing first I have avoided to watch this movie for a long time after seeing the overall rating given by critics for this movie which is not totally justified specially after I watched the movie. So after reading quite a few readings of users reviews I put aside Critics reviews and start watching the movie by giving 15-20 Minutes and then I watched without single break till it ends. This movie was so awesome I cant believe the low under 7 rating it should be at least 7 or 8. This movie has everything and it execute so great hats off to director to pull out the novel with great cinematography and bring the novel to silver screen. This movie has it all, Love, betrayal, friendship, heartache, emotions, revolution, human touch, midlife crisis and combine with superb acting by everyone. But two people stands out clearly, Jeremy Irons and Jack Houston it doesn't mean others didn't they do part but Jeremy and Jack are really good, their expressions and overall acting showing the pain of love, emotions and the life they trapped in. Everyone at some stage of life really wanted to go out and free from themselves its shows greatly in this movie. Billie August did a great job. And this is one of the finest Jeremy Irons movie so far.

The above statement goes against the philosophy of "Night Train to Lisbon," but that's because I don't agree with the philosophy. My opinion does not take away from this beautiful film because of course, events can be viewed in many different ways.Jeremy Irons plays Raimund Gregorius, a Swiss Professor. One gets the impression that he leads a well-ordered and probably boring life. On his way to work one morning, he sees a woman about to jump off of a bridge, and he tackles her to the ground. She asks if she can walk with him, which she does, and sits in his schoolroom for a while. Then he notices her leaving. He runs from his classroom and follows her. In her coat, which she has left behind, he finds a train ticket to Lisbon and a book by Amadeu Prado. The train leaves in fifteen minutes. Raimund races to the station, but the girl is nowhere in sight. He boards the train.Raimund becomes enchanted by Amadeu's writings and wants to find out more about him and meet him. He registers at a hotel, buys some clothes, and starts asking questions and looking for Amadeu.What he finds is a fascinating story that took place during the Portuguese resistance to the dictator Salazar, It concerns some young people, Amadeu (Jack Huston), his best friend Joao (played as an adult by Tom Courtenay), Jorge (August Diehl/Bruno Ganz), and Estefania (Melanie Laurent/Lena Olin), and their lives then and now. With the help of his eye doctor Mariana (Martina Gedeck), a priest (Christopher Lee), and others, Raimund puts the pieces of their story together. In doing so, he begins to question his own life and choices. As he tells Mariana, "They lived." He asks himself, has he? The beauty of Portugal is ever-present in this film, underlying the emotional and suspenseful scenes as Raimund learns the different threads of the story. Jack Huston, so mysterious and sad as the wounded war vet in "Boardwalk Empire," is a completely different character here. He's physically beautiful, gentle, and idealistic. The acting is marvelous, as is Bille August's direction.This is not a bombastic, blow-up, CGI movie. It moves at a steady pace, not a breakneck one as it explores these people's lives and the writings of Amadeu, and as Raimund talks about randomness and chance. His involvement does indeed seem random, but I was left with a feeling that he was where he was supposed to be, learning what he needed to learn in order to live a fuller life. Whether life is random or not is something none of us know. I do know this is a wonderful, atmospheric film.