We first see Onoff (Gerard Depardieu), a once celebrated author who hasn't published in years, running through a raining forest at night in a panic. The police are waiting on the roads and he's taken to the rundown local station to be questioned by The Inspector (Roman Polanski). Onoff is angry, aggressive, and evasive, and as the interrogation unfolds, what first appears to be a murder mystery transforms into a psychological thriller and then evolves into something of an existential odyssey. The film is written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, the award-winning director of "Cinema Paradiso," and he creates a heightened sense of drama out of what could be a high concept stage play in the tradition of Kafka or Becket brought to the screen. The station is cut off from the world as the storm knocks out power and phone, enhancing the sense of isolation. While the station's small staff plays a role in the unfolding drama, this is essentially a two-hander between Depardieu, one of France's greatest actors playing an emotionally volatile figure, and Polanski, who is best known as an Oscar-winning director but also a gifted performer on both stage and screen and underplays to Depardieu's explosive energy. It's all very metaphorical, right down to the end, but Tornatore brings an immediacy to it all and makes it quite entertaining. Rated PG-13 for brief shocking violence and momentary language. In French with English subtitles. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)