Measure of a Man, The (2015)
 |
Review #1,258 |
THE SCOOP
Director: Stephane Brize
Cast: Vincent Lindon, Karine de Mirbeck, Matthieu Schaller
Plot: An unemployed factory worker is trying to make ends in working-class France.
Genre: Drama
Awards: Won Best Actor and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Cannes).
Runtime: 93min
Rating: PG
International Sales: MK2
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: MILD)
I first saw Vincent Lindon in Claire
Denis' Bastards (2013), and was
suitably impressed. In The Measure of a Man, which he won Best
Actor at Cannes, Lindon gives a minimalist performance far from the brooding
one he so adeptly displayed in Denis' noir-mystery.
Here, he plays Thierry, a
working-class father struggling to find a job to support his family. The film opens with him trying to understand
why he was not qualified for a particular job when he had completed a skills
productivity course.
Made up of a series
of detailed daily situations that would be considered mundane to be put up on
the screen, The Measure of a Man intentional
strives for that microscopic effect as we follow Thierry in his quest to land a
job.
There’s some comedy to be found from
Lindon’s poker-face performance, especially when things turn against him in
social situations. His reaction (or lack
thereof) is admirable considering the pressure he is shouldering.
Never once do we see Thierry rage in anger;
he may seem unassuming, but he never backs down from any negotiation that would
see him in the losing end. A
case-in-point is a sequence midway through the film that sees him appealing for
reason with a potential buyer for his house to raise funds for his
syndrome-afflicted son.
The film does meander without any
purpose for nearly an hour, and one would be hard-pressed to find a convincing
reason to recommend it, until we are pulled forcefully into its narrative in
the final act, which derives its power from a depressing turn of events.
Directed
and co-written by Stephane Brize, The
Measure of a Man is his breakthrough into the big league after five
features. While the film’s mundaneness
may be challenging for the restless viewer, it somehow tackles themes of
capitalism, consumerism and surveillance quite uniquely through the world of
work and labour.
Perhaps
the end goal of Brize’s work is to make us ponder: is there more to working our
socks off, being honest with ourselves, and coming home to tend to our loved
ones? If you put yourself in Thierry’s
shoes, that’s all there is to life. It
doesn’t get any more complex.
Verdict: As mundane as it is, the film finds reason
for its existence with a powerful final act and a minimalist performance by
Vincent Lindon.
GRADE: B
Tweet
Follow @Filmnomenon
Click here to go back to Central Station.
Comments