Time Out

Hard day pretending to work

2001

Review: June 24, 2008

Director: Laurent Cantet

Starring: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot

If you like.

THE SETUP:

Man lost his job a while ago, but still pretends to his family like he’s working.

DISCUSSION:

I have been impressed with the work of Laurent Cantet, French writer-director who directed the very nice Heading South, who just won the Palme D'or at Cannes with his new film, and whose writer, Robin Campillo, wrote and directed the heady zombie film Les Revenants [which is very much in this style].

The credits play as we see a man asleep in a car. As the titles go on, the windshield of the car defrosts, revealing the parking lot and field outside. Ya gotta love the French. It’s time for Vincent, our main character, to wake and vacate the parking lot where he has slept. He calls his wife and pretends to be away on business. There’s a nice scene where he drives along, keeping pace with a train, obviously thrilled by the simple sight of the train moving through the misty landscape. The whole atmosphere of the movie thus far has been foggy and rainy.

He goes home, arriving just as his wife and kids are going out. His father and mother are there, too, and his father presses him to talk about the news they’ve heard—that there’s talk of a new job. Vincent plays it off like he doesn’t want to say anything, because he’s not sure yet. The script captures very well the way people will press on a topic without really meaning to, as everyone keeps asking about Vincent’s job, then asking why all the secrecy, then being annoyed that he won’t trust them enough to tell them. And rather frustratingly, Vincent just won’t say “There are reasons I just don’t want to talk about it right now.” He just hems and haws and glosses over everything. Vincent is quite handsome, with a big friendly round face not unlike James Gandolfini, which is usually smiling in a way that seems warm, but over time appears increasingly desperate.

He goes into an office building and walks around. He hangs out in the lobby making imaginary phone calls until he’s kicked out, whereupon he feigns gentle indignation. He walks around memorizing corporate literature so he can sound like an expert. He tells his family that he has an important job working for the U.N., but won’t tell them much more. His eldest son pretty much ignores him. He asks his father for a large sum so he can buy his own apartment, but obviously is just using the money for survival. He periodically splurges on something, just to show his family that he can.

SPOILERS > > >
Eventually some details emerge. This guy makes contact with him, letting him know that he’s onto Vincent. Turns out this guy is an ex-con and now has a salesforce peddling black-market trinkets like sunglasses. Meanwhile Vincent is going around trying to interest people in this investment scheme, and obviously just taking their money. At one point he reconnects with a friend he actually likes, and is in an awkward position when the guy wants in on the investment, but Vincent doesn’t want him to. Toward the end Vincent says that he a previous job required a lot of travel, and he became somewhat obsessed with driving. He would miss the exits of where he was supposed to go and just keep driving. We are led to believe that this may have led to his losing his job. We also find out that he hasn’t applied for unemployment yet. So maybe this whole thing is really just about how obsessed he is with driving?
< < < SPOILERS END

So you’re watching, and you’re thinking “Wow, this poor man. He must have such a strict sense of success built into him, probably by that father, that he just can’t let anyone know he’s been fired.” And then you start to think that you’re going to start getting some details about how he got that way. But then the movie goes on, Vincent gets kicked out of a parking lot AGAIN, he walks around a field memorizing business talk AGAIN, he is annoyed at his sullen son AGAIN, and you start to realize you aren’t going to get any answers, just the tiniest hints. And what you are going to get are a lot of repetitive scenes, which you are going to start to resent as the movie stretches PAST it’s second hour. Apparently this is based on a true story... but the guy in the real story went on to kill his wife, two kids and parents!

It was good, it just doesn’t develop. It establishes a situation, then just keeps rehashing it until it ends. The writing is okay—the script is good at getting at the way people press on a topic without realizing it, but you know, EVENTUALLY someone is going to talk about something other than work. Well, not in this movie. The direction and acting are good, but as the thing goes on and on with little variation, it starts to seem more and more pointless, which is not even to mention resentment at how it’s wasting your time.

So, yeah, a pretty good movie that could have been a great one, if only it went somewhere. This is ripe for an American remake, especially given the current economy, but someone would definitely have to invent something to happen in the end. No ending, no insight… this film tosses a lot into the air and then just leaves it to float there.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?

You could do worse. I would start with Heading South if you like drama, or Les Revenants if you like thoughtful horror.