This is a sweet & simple French-Canadian film about an ex-racing cyclist (played by Charlotte Laurier in that weird & aloof way that French actresses use to express nearly all their emotions) who finds herself working as a courier just so she can ride her bike. I found some of the acting (especially by the English-speakers in the first ten minutes) to be stiff & high-schooly, but once everyone's able to speak French, it goes much more smoothly.
The plot, as above, might be dull if there weren't an amazing character like Lorenzo, the ex-racer from Italy (played with all the requisite gruff & creaks by Dino Tavarone) who runs the bicycle shop that Laurier has to take her bike to. He's able to put her life in perspective & the long scene in the middle of the film in which he talks about his "big race" is some of the finest one-on-one filmmaking I've seen in ages.
The film has some nice, adrenalin-filled moments but the heart of the story is more sedate, involving relativity & finding out what is important in one's life. It's not sappy or saccharin, but it's not something you'll entirely relate to, either. You'll enjoy the performances & forgive the eccentricities (the revelation about the main character's sexuality, thrown in somewhere in the middle, seemed woefully out of place) &, if you're like me, you'll want to go out & ride a bike for a while.
