As many German-speaking students know, Max Frisch's "Homo Faber" is standard literature in classes, and rightly so. It is one of the rare novels that profoundly show the transformation of an extreme type of person and creed:Homo Faber, the man as the forger of his own fate, the believer in machines, technology and reason, filled with disgust towards all nature and "mushy" things like relationships, who rejects all signs and omens, finally has the bliss to get to know love and the fate to lose it.None of the subtleties, deep characterization and symbolism of Frisch's novel survived in this movie - and Julie Delpy's sweet performance was not enough to make it at least half worthwhile. - Movie not recommended (read the book).

A laconic engineer/adventurer, with a fear of chance and coincidence, courts both when he meets a young waif half his age who reminds him of his lost love, and not without good reason. The final surprise plot twist is telegraphed well in advance, but after a clumsy introduction, with too many flashbacks within flashbacks and odd, impulsive changes in scenery (Europe to South America to New York City), the globetrotting story settles down into a haunting parable of memory and fate, showing how one can be forgotten but the other never avoided. The only other flaw to the film is Sam Shepard's annoying and unnecessary voice-over confession, which sounds as if it were added for the benefit of slow thinking American audiences. The narration spoils what could have been a minor romantic masterpiece; notice how much more enigmatic and involving the story becomes without it.

The first (and last) images of this film really interested me. At the risk of spoiling, we find Faber sitting alone in a Greek airport trying to figure out what the hell just happened to him. A really depressing scene that draws you in to his web of coincidence that is the rest of the story. Faber is a man of science that really should have a great life(he is the chief engineer on an important dam project), but his past catches up with him with a series of coincidences that play a terrible joke with his life.Delpy is very sexy and very French. The aircraft that crashes is just as sexy. A romp around Europe rounds this great film out. Watch with your wife or girlfriend with wine - not with the guys and beer!

Voyager is to be enjoyed for the characters and the actors' performances and not for the plot which is rather obvious, unsurprising, and which requires extensive suspension of disbelief. Sam Shepard is very effective but it is the ethereal luminescence of Julie Delpy that kept me riveted. She is a special presence onscreen. In addition, although the story is contrived, the relationships and issues are thought provoking and lingering.