Inspired
by a real-life story about a man whose web of lies culminated
in multiple murders, French writer-director Laurent Cantet's
"Time Out" presents a nonviolent yet tragic tale of job
alienation and self-worth.
Vincent, a former corporate drone, has been out of work for
weeks. Too ashamed to tell his wife and wealthy parents that
he was fired from his job as a financial consultant, he claims
that he has landed a new, more prestigious and satisfying job
with the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
To bolster his lies, Vincent stays away from home, sleeping
in his SUV and calling home to his wife, Muriel, with details
about his fake appointments and business meetings. Each lie
leads to another until Vincent seems almost to have convinced
himself that he's what he claims to be -- an investment
adviser to African governments.
His concerned wife, though suspicious, wants to believe him
and backs up his U.N. job story even as she doubts it.
Stage actor Aurelien Recoing makes an expressive
feature-film debut as Vincent, an every-man suffering from
career malaise. He looks unsettlingly blissful as he imagines
a new, freer life while driving alone through misty forests
and snowy mountains.
But clearly, Vincent is ill. His false face of optimistic
sun-niness gives way to depression and anxiety as the
fictional life he's created begins to take its toll.
To keep money flowing to his family, Vincent snares former
classmates in a fraudulent investment scheme and then tries to
remedy that moral misjudgment by partnering with a smuggler.
As the deceit of his wife (delicately played by Karin Viard)
and three children becomes more complicated, the filmmaker
tightens the psychological noose.
We stand with Vincent as he peers into the antiseptic
offices of glass and steel buildings where people move about
like rats in cages. We listen as he embroiders his job story
to his parents and children and we wonder, will he snap? Would
we?
Cantet's film was suggested by a notorious European case
involving Jean-Claude Romand, who killed his entire family and
burned his home to the ground after it was discovered that he
had lied about being a World Health Organization doctor.
After a slow and steady setup (that may irritate or act as
a sedative for many Americans), Cantet opts for a bloodless
denouement.
"Time Out"
won a top award at the Venice Film Festival and played at
festivals in Sundance, Toronto and New York.
From
www.louisvillescene.com
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