The Man in the Hat is a semi-silent comedy film starring Ciarán Hinds in the titular role.
The story revolves around an enigmatic figure who journeys around France enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of the country. He runs into a series of recurring characters, such as a perpetually damp man, an attractive woman on a bike and five shady-looking men.
Tropes
- Deuteragonist: The Damp Man has his own subplot independent of the main story. He contemplates suicide, but botches it and is talked out of trying again. Then he falls for a woman working at a restaurant and they make a life selling pizza from a food truck.
- Food Porn: This is in France, so there are numerous shots of fine foods. The Man in the Hat spends a good portion of his time onscreen enjoying various dishes.
- Lady in Red: The Woman with the Bike wears a red dress, is very attractive, carries an air of mystery and is set up as a love interest.
- Pinball Protagonist: The Man in the Hat doesn't make an impact on any part of the story, alternating between wandering from scene to scene and avoiding the attention of the five men.
- Poor Communication Kills: It turns out those five men who keep running into the Man in the Hat aren't a gang out to get him, but travelling musicians. Due to the lack of dialogue, the latter had no way of figuring this out.
- The Silent Bob: There's very little dialogue spoken between the recurring characters.
