Somebody asked me if I liked this movie, and I had to answer that I did not, but then I realized once again what an inadequate word “like” is. The reason I didn’t like “Track 29” is that the film is unlikable - perhaps deliberately so. But that doesn’t make it a bad film, and it probably makes it a more interesting one. Like many of the strange, convoluted works of Nicolas Roeg (“Don’t Look Now,” “Bad Timing,” “Eureka,” “Insignificance”), it is bad-tempered, kinky and misogynistic. But not every film is required to massage us with pleasure. Some are allowed to be abrasive and frustrating, to make us think.
The title of “Track 29” comes from the lyrics of “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” and the film’s heroine is a mad woman married to a surgeon (Christopher Lloyd) who collects model trains. He has a great layout down in the basement - lots of track and a terrific collection of rolling stock - and when he’s not playing with his trains, he’s attending