Customer Reviews

Time Out

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When Vincent--a tall, quiet, morose middle-aged man--is fired from his job, he finds himself unexpectedly cut loose from society and set adrift from life as he knows it. Instead of looking for a job, he casually cons some family and friends out of substantial chunks of money in order to support his wife and three children while he spends week after week driving through the European countryside in winter. A subdued but inescapable tension builds for the audience as we continually fail to understand what motivates Vincent to risk so much, and this tension becomes only more profound when we realize that Vincent himself does not understand his actions. "Time Out" is a hypnotically sad story told at a measured, melancholy pace with a haunting musical score that circumscribes Vincent's strange, incomprehensible mystery.

Vincent is an average working stiff family man who suddenly lose his job. Finding another job is not really the problem, something deeper than unemployment is troubling this man. His old job so consumes him, yet at the same time is so meaningless to him, that he panicks and become slightly unhinged. He doesn't tell his family, and pretend to be still working, spending his days driving around the country side, sitting in parks. Gradually, he descend into moral seediness.

What's disturbing is that this guy has a very loving family and good, decent friends. It's the man's relationship with his work that's troubling. The movie didn't really come together for me until the very last shot, where the themes of the movie that bubbled under the surface rise up in the subtle emotions of his face as a quiet trap close over him.

Some people may say, "Well, he is bored with his job, so what? Many of us are!" But I think that's merely the surface of what he is going through. He is a lost man desperately searching for meaning and passion in life. In that aspect, his struggles are like many of our daily struggles amplified, and deserve our sympathy.

Vincent is on a route where he is out driving trying to find something, while hiding that he has been laid off from his family. The anxiety of displaying failure to his family and parents seems to be overwhelming for Vincent and he begins to pretend that he has quit his job for a better job in Switzerland. Through his idea of lying about his newly acquired job, he is lead astray from reality, and he must cover his lies by providing the necessary means for his family. He does so by scamming his acquaintances and friends for large amounts of money. In return, he offers a large profit through his pretend job, however, this is overheard by a man in a hotel lobby. This man interferes with Vincent's plan, but in return he finds a new profitable business through this stranger. During this, Vincent is struggling with to keep his family happy and content, but the wife begins to smell a rat. Time Out is an intriguing slow paced thriller about a man's pride and his search for happiness, which provides well developed characters and ingenious cinematography that enhances the quality of the film. Ultimately, the audience is provided well-rounded story that is presented through an astounding cinematic experience.

My girlfriend and I went to go see this movie a bit ago at an International Film Festival here in Minneapolis, not knowing what the movie was about, or who was in it. Although she hated, I absolutely loved it! The story revolves around a man, Vincent, who loses his job and doesn't have the courage to tell his family. To cover for his failure, he concocts an outrageous story about a new job he has gotten for the United Nations, and as the film progresses, we watch as his life goes into a downward spiral. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this film is the fact that it is truly realistic, both in dealing with the idea of failure and the idea of hopelessness. It's painful to watch, as Vincent wastes away his days doing nothing, while calling his wife to tell her that work is going great, yet at the same time, we can identify with his situation. Pride is one of the greatest human flaws, and the film expertly examines it. Overall, a great film, one that I strongly recommend. Action fans, though, will be very disappointed, as it is truly a character examination piece.

The French are masters of subtlety and here's another film that proves it. Vincent, a quiet family man, keeps up the appearance of having his job to make his family--wife and three kids--feel secure with him. But there is another force working at Vincent, inside him and it is just as powerful, if not more so, in his game-playing.

He is in thrall to his father, a wealthy businessman who, thanks to his great success, has been able to not only raise Vincent well but also psychologically tie a noose around his neck his entire life. Although this does not seem to be a major theme, it becomes crystal clear near the end of the film. Vincent's own "success" is a mockery of his father's as he scams people left and right, lies to those he knows and loves, and engages in criminal activity.

This subtle display of familial dysfunction is a brilliant psychological character study and for that reason alone, makes this a film worth not only watching but owning. It's possible not too many others will have this interpretation of the film, but from my perspective, that's what it is.

Highly recommended.

I saw this film on a total whim one day when I was walking around downtown in my local city and it happened to be playing at a local theatre which is known to show more off-beat and foreign films. It was quite an unexpected pleasant surprise to come across this film because I don't usually watch many foreign films.

This film really touched a chord with me as I feel that my personality is very similar to Vincent in the film. I've been fired from jobs so many times due to circumstances completely beyond my control due to situations in my life. I know the feeling of having an ego and wanting to pretend everything is working out fine to your friends when in reality you're really up-the-creek. So you end up creating an elaborate cover for yourself and keep burying yourself deeper. I just had to purchase a copy of this film. This is one of those personal films for me that I don't really think any of my friends or family members would understand the appeal of.

Vincent has a wonderful wife and three kids, a nice house, a decent car and everything else to be considered a successful person. He also has a wonderful job in Switzerland in one of UN's sections, or has he? At least that's what he tells everybody accepting his wife. In reality he's got fired from his last job several months ago and was afraid to tell. Now he's lying more and more constructing rather shaky and fragile plot of his occupation.
This brilliant film everybody is talking to be long and boring isn't that at all. For two hours I couldn't get my eyes off of the screen just like I was watching some thriller. Well, it is a thriller except there are no guns, chases and murders here. It's a thriller from our everydays life and therefore may be close to many. It is unbearable to see the agony of this man, who's a good husband and father, who's kind and sensitive person, but we know that those lies are like cancer - when you know the diagnosis it's already not a matter of whether you'll stay alive or not, but of how much time is left. We know and Vincent knows that soon everything will surface but he can't do anything about it. And therefore even more tragic is the outcome when we see everyone is ready to help and forgive, because it emphasizes one more time a man's loneliness in our world. We don't know the people we live among, we are afraid and don't know what to expect, we are not sure if we're loved... And one of this movie's messages - if you are in trouble - just reach out your hand, there are people who are ready to give you theirs.
"Time Out" is a brilliant, intense drama with excellent directing and outstanding acting. You won't regret if you buy it. Definately one of the best films I've seen during the last year.

Disturbing character study appropriately shot with the style and feel of a docu-drama, the movie explores a universal truth- our innate fear of failing- both to ourselves and to others. There are those who may do virtually anything not to acknowledge it. A mesmerizing, cautionary tale.

When I scanned the blurb on the cover of this DVD I thought that this film was a dramatization of the story of Frenchman Jean-Claude Romand from the book The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception (2000) written by novelist and screen writer Emmanuel Carrère. However, Carrère did not write the screen play for L'Emploi du temps, nor is the story in the film the same or even close to "A True Story of Monstrous Deception."

True, Vincent, the central character, does practice a deception, but it is hardly monstrous. In fact it is so ordinary and banal that many viewers may find it boring.

The film opens with a man pretending to be working while in fact he is just driving around in his car, talking on his cellphone and telling his wife lies about where he is and what he is doing.

What is going on?

I won't say anymore because part of the effectiveness of this very subtle film stems from not knowing why Vincent is driving around pretending to be working. If you haven't seen the film I recommend that you not read any reviews on it until you have, because it is difficult to write a review of this film without revealing something that will spoil it for the viewer. If I had known what Vincent's predicament was prior to viewing, I don't think the film would have held my interest as well as it did.

So let me compliment the director, Laurent Cantet, on his fine direction, make note of the interesting and professional camera work, and the fine acting by Aurélien Recoing who plays the lead with excellent support from Karin Viard as his wife, Muriel, and Serge Livrozet who plays a mysterious petty criminal. And let me add that the theme of the film involves the fear of failure and the dehumanization of life within the modern corporate structure, and that it is replete with the sort of vacuous dialogue heard in corporate biz-speak in which vague but seemingly impressive generalities are bandied about in lieu of saying anything specific for fear of giving away too much information.

In a sense this is a dismaying satire of the business world, to be compared (distantly) to such films as In the Company of Men (1997)--a sociopathic study within the corporate structure--and David Mamet's striking Glengarry Glen Ross (1992).

I had mixed feelings about the resolution of the film (which of course I will keep vague). It seemed that the movie could have ended the scene before, the haunting scene in which we hear the voice of Vincent's wife on the cellphone telling him she loves him while we see him walking away from the headlights of his Renault van over the snow toward the blackness of the night. If the film had ended with that scene how different would our experience have been! I wonder if originally that was indeed the ending, with the other ending an afterthought. How different our understanding of Vincent the man would be depending on which ending we experience.

Of course if you haven't seen the film, this is way too vague, but I mention the endings because when you do watch the film you might think about how the ending effects the story and our understanding of the film. Most of the time for me the ending doesn't matter that much. It's the treatment and the development of the story and the theme, the artistry of the players and the camera work and the direction that count. Endings sometimes are even arbitrary. In this film however the ending is important.

See this for Aurélien Recoing who elicits our empathy over the course of a long and demanding role.

While I don't think "Time Out" is quite the four-star masterpiece depicted on the cover box of the US DVD release, it is a spooky, worthwhile viewing that ought to make any member of the labor force more than a little uneasy.

Underacheiver Vincent (finely played by French theater actor Aurélien Recoing) drifts slowly to the edges of working society. Suddenly unemployed, he tries to keep the secret from his wife. Think of this small lie as a snowball tumbling down the top of a hill - in no time Vincent has a series of stories spun from whole cloth he has to keep in the air, like plates he has to keep spinning at the end of poles...working for the UN, some half-baked investment scheme, a new car on borrowed money. The whole thing is very unsettling because it's completely plausible to see how Vincent has step by step fallen into this abyss.

The ending here isn't the strongest resolution in the world...sort of a cop-out really. And, for this reason, I don't think 'Time Out' is the great undiscovered French movie that you'll rave to friends about. *That* movie is Jacques Audiard's "Read My Lips" with Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos. That's the best movie you've never seen.