Time Out (2001) User Reviews (62)

A penetrating study of one man's unique reaction to being fired

[bandw · 8/10 · 24 January 2012]

Vincent has recently been fired from his job as a financial planner. He had been living an upper middle class life in eastern France--nice home, loving wife, three young kids. He does not tell his family about his being fired, and not just because he does not want to face the humiliation. He remarks that his old job used to require his driving long distances and that was the only time he was happy. He said that he could just drive forever listening to music in a thoughtless state. In fact, that is how he lost his job, he would be so in the moment when driving that he would miss his turnoffs. That seems to be what Vincent wants, just to cruise in neutral without the obligations of job and family.

When Vincent lost his job he entered into a sort of fantasy world where he made up a position as a worker for the United Nations as a manager who would set up teams of managers to set up companies in Africa. He would seek and get investors based on this falsehood. Lest this scam sounds unbelievable, recall that this was in a time when any crazy scheme seemed to be making money and investors wanted in on the action (think Bernie Madoff). It's ironic that the job environment that Vincent had been cut loose from endowed him with the skills to run the scam he did.

When Vincent walks the halls of various businesses, where people are in meetings, exchanges are taking place between boss and secretary, phone calls are being taken, paperwork being filled out, it looks like important stuff is happening. But the undercurrent is that there is more busywork going on than anything of value. However, you do see the human value of belonging to the social structure of a corporation.

As Vincent, Aurélien Recoing is skillful in capturing the illusory world that he has entered. Karin Viard, as Vincent's caring and concerned wife, is particularly good.

At some level Vincent knows that his time out must end. As evidence of this we see him paying back a friend that he had taken money from as an investor. There is a powerful scene toward the end where Vincent's whole family confronts him and he absconds by jumping out the window. From there he literally spends time lost in the wilderness.

The final scene has Vincent being offered a high level job where he would have a staff of eight and a lot of responsibility. You would think that that would be a happy ending, but as Vincent's eyes slid to the side as the job was being explained to him, this was for me a depressing ending, since I sensed he was soon going to be right back where he was when he was wandering in the dark. It will be but another chapter in the life of a man who never really made a decision about what he wanted to do, but rather just went with the flow and followed the money and society's pressures. It is a commentary on how so many well paying jobs now amount to moving bits around in computer memories, and dealing with paperwork and phone calls. And how for many people those jobs provide such little meaning and satisfaction.

Vinny Liar

[paul2001sw-1 · 7/10 · 22 August 2004]

People may lie for the thrill of being appreciated, or out of the fear of not being so; but while a fantasy world may initially seem liberating, it can become a prison as well. These themes are explored in 'Time Out', the story of Vincent, a man who loses his job and pretends he hasn't, rather than face up to the truth. There's a nice absence of didacticism in the way this film is assembled, a rich picture is assembled but without any attempt to ram a single interpretation down the audience's throat; it adds up to a fine portrait of depression, and a loneliness that oddly can exist only within a relationship. But there's also a creativeness in Vincent's behaviour which is necessary to generate the plot but which doesn't quite square with the rest of the movie: the film is more convincing once Vincent is deeply trapped in the web of his own lies, rather than when he is spinning it. At the heart of 'Time Out', Vincent remains an enigma unclarified: it is this that is both the film's strength and weakness. It's not a perfect film, and the start is quite dull, but the longer it lasts, the deeper it feels.

Vincent's oblivious journey in taking some time out for himself became "une grande illusion"

[ruby_fff · 8/10 · 29 May 2002]

The beginning shot as the credits appear looks so painterly - the soft tone seemed serenely neutral - not until a slight movement in the picture do I realize what we're looking at and where the scene is. This is another film (previously I commented on "World Traveler") distributed by ThinkFilm, whose company logo has the ' i ' upside down in 'Think.' TIME OUT is challenging for the camera: there's quite a percentage of time we spend with central character Vincent (a distinctive, subtle portrayal from Aurélien Recoing) inside a car, on the road at night time, out in the fog or rain, even scenes with extensive snow and whiteness all around. Cinematographer Pierre Milon skillfully delivered.

The English film title "Time Out" could suggest just that: Vincent needs to 'time out,' pause and take a look at his life so far. The French title "L'emploi du temps" indicates the use of the occasion, which Vincent certainly does: he's literally taking the 'given' time, making use of it by giving himself a break from the accumulated stress at work and mounting expectations at home. He looks at ease being out of his 9-year long corporate position. He enjoys being alone by himself driving and singing along to a tune. Such bliss.

It's stress putting on a mask. Solitude is the temporary palliative. For a while Vincent is in control of the situation at hand. Even managed to transiently delight Muriel, his dear wife. When will this play-acting - lying without a blink, stop? When the tap is finally loosen a bit - meeting Jean-Michel, the bottled up truth released. How relieving to pour out to a total stranger. It's a respite: he's actually happy not having to exhaust himself in weaving his lies, keeping up a front, hustling friends and father for finances.

Again, as in director Laurent Cantet's previous film "Ressources humaines," there is the latent gap between father and son. Candid communication and patient understanding from both sides are dearly lacking. In TIME OUT, Vincent is often on the road and away from home and family (a schoolteacher wife and 3 children). He assumes the family man responsibility matter of factly, unaware of the increasing chasm he's creating between himself and Muriel (sensitively portrayed by Karin Viard), even though he continues, as usual, calling her from 'work' on his cell phone, letting her know his 'whereabouts', putting up a front under his conscience-clearing rationale that "Muriel is too weak to take the news" (that he was actually fired from his job). Remorselessly he spins one small lie after another to be 'on top of' things. Will things just carry on as he blindly continues his time out? When will she find out? This is not 1957's "The Sweet Smell of Success" or 1991's "Chameleon Street" (both excellent films). TIME OUT is very much its own powerful medium, poignantly depicts the dormant treachery of modern work life and demanding family ideals. (Almost shades of director Bryan Forbes 1975's "The Stepford Wives" - reverse gender, I felt.)

Writer-director Cantet seems to know corporate jargon/language quite well: in both his films, he incorporated perceptively in the script the ways of big business in studious detail. "Human Resources" 1999 and "Time Out" 2001 are well worth the filmic experience - more than meets the eye, for sure.

The Price of Success

[Zen Bones · 14 April 2002]

Ironically, I just saw this a day after viewing Abbas Kiarostami's brilliant "Close Up", a story of a man who could no longer accept the endless banalities of his life and decided to become someone else (a film director!). That man had no sense of identity about himself but he knew what he cared about and what he believed in (the power of art and cinema). That brings him one up on the hero of this story. Vincent is a man who also cannot accept the banalities of his life, but he hasn't the foggiest idea of who he is or what he really cares about. It's as if he was born out of a computer software program. He knows what he's supposed to care about: nice home, nice car, nice bank account... But his work as an investor is so deprived of any human value that he loses all sense of values. His environment; a sterile, generic, upper middle-class vacuum that could make one believe that all of France has turned into Silicon Valley with a touch of the Scandinavian, has none of the passion or warmth that one identifies with being human. He has a loving wife, but according to his 'program', he believes that he would lose her if she knew that he was no longer able to function as a cog in the machine, and provide her with the lifestyle that she has grown accustomed to.

That is the first tragedy of Vincent, because his wife really does love him. The second tragedy of Vincent, is that even though he recognizes his need for freedom, he doesn't know how to use it. He's like a man who has been released from a lifetime of imprisonment, but still hangs around the prison yard because he is unable to comprehend what might be available to him. He'd lost his job because his love for being free was more important to him than keeping his appointments, but most of his time spent in his new-found freedom is in doing the same job he'd done before: investments. The only difference now is that he likes to believe that the investments are helping developing Third World countries. He knows that there really are no investments (he keeps the money that people give him and spends it on a nifty Range Rover, among other things), but momentarily, he can feel as if he is 'somebody' to his family and friends when he tells them of this meaningful new job he (allegedly) has.

Vincent has been described by many as 'everyman', but I think of him more as 'everyman who has just stepped through the looking glass'. Instead of taking a good, hard look at himself, he somehow ended up taking a look beyond himself because he could not find a reflection. He can't even recognize how much he's patterned his children to follow the same program he did. We see him teaching his kindergarten-age son how to 'hard sell' his toys at a school fair. Later, in a fascinating scene, we see him and his family doing what most people of his class do in their free time. They go shopping in an upscale, overpriced store to buy clothing that they know they don't really need. Vincent has it all, but it fills nothing in him. His family has it all, yet they don't seem to question the fact that they rarely spend any time together.

Laurent Candet has created a beautifully somber and sober look at the price of 'success'. The film is practically drained of all color, save for blues and grays, to illustrate the life force that has been systematically drained from Vincent throughout his life. And the score, a somber cello piece, refreshingly accentuates Vincent's mind instead of his actions (like most scores do). It is like a slow-moving merry-go-round that brings on a sense of familiarity that is simultaneously comfortable and unnerving. Because what the gist of it all is: is that no one wants to spend their life on a merry-go-round. Even a comfortable one.

The Terrified Man...

[robertconnor · 10/10 · 19 January 2005]

A middle-aged middle class family man has a mid-life crisis.

Hardly an inspiring or original idea, yet Laurent Cantet creates a quite devastating and compelling landscape of one man's internal terror - terror at his situation and complete inability to express his feelings.

Through Cantet, a combination of economic script, astonishingly sparse and subtle performances, and Pook's deeply moving musical score, takes the viewer on a journey of displaced despair and futile attempts to paper over the cracks. Recoing is captivating, his face a turmoil of quiet bewilderment and pain, and he is ably matched by Viard as his increasingly unsettled partner. The penultimate scene between Recoing, Viard and their children is quite astonishing for its tension and disquiet.

In the end, however, the final scene says it all. Recoing's face tells us everything we need to know, and he really should have won every award going for this brilliant performance. Once again the French film industry shows us all how to make films.

What it means to be human...or more specifically, a man

[cestmoi · 10/10 · 14 April 2002]

Has anybody ever set up a truck stop shot more magnificently?

This film is the full ten thing. Cast is spectacular, the photography superb, the unobtrusive music on the money, the story and its effects on the life of a family, affecting. Subtlety is a hallmark here. If you don't know the story line it must be even more powerful in a first viewing. As Fellini made at least two films that can be seen as defining the male of the Catholic/Italian species (8 1/2 & Amarcord) this magnificent film from France from a director I am not familiar with, defines "the problem of being male." I was fully involved and unable to complete a sentence for twenty minutes after the lights went up. But it is just not male identification at work here. It is the anguish and plight of the wife, magnificently played by Karen Viard, or the children who are as confused and anxious as any of us. The father, a very French man with a franc or euro, even redeems himself with love and compassion. And the "unsavory" seller of bogus goods who rescues our Vincent by offering employment, comes through swimmingly with compassion and understanding. I can not recommend this film enough. Please see it.

Akira Kurosawa On Downers

[httpmom · 6/10 · 21 September 2006]

Curious that one person discussed their total hatred of this movie (because of the upbeat ending) on the message boards and got really flamed for doing so. I wondered why was everyone going off on this person because he hated the ending? If the ending was supposed to be as he suggested...too unrealistically positive then I dislike it as well because it would not be in keeping with the character of Vincent. Maybe I am confused because I do not understand French and I was relying on the English sub titles but I got the impression that the end was actually very bleak because while Vincent is sitting hearing about the job of a lifetime...he is also being told that he has to invest his own personal moneys to have it work. I took that to mean that the job was a scam on a bigger level that what he had perpetrated on his friends. He said he wasn't scared because it was just more of the downward spiral that he was obviously never going to get out from under. To me that would be in keeping with his character...accepting a slow death. And even if it was a great job he was in no position mentally to make the most of it.

And oh I loved the cinematography!

The really sad aspect of this movie is how honest a reality this has become for many people in the world..with down sizing and out sourcing and the "Starbucks on ever corner of the road in the planet" corporate culture...ordinary people just do not matter a speck in the big scheme of things. We lived through the Dot Com bust here in the San Francisco Bay Area and many of our friends have never recovered financially. At one point 6 of our 10 best best friends were unemployed for eight months to over a year. They have all gotten work since but many are working at lesser paying jobs with little or no security. Add to that the fact that there jobs are not nearly as exciting as the old ones...driving to and from work can actually be the best part of their day.

Killing time

[jotix100 · 10/10 · 28 February 2005]

"Time Out" seems to be the wrong translation for "L'emploi du temps". Laurent Cantet, the brilliant French director has given us a film that has a hypnotic quality and makes the viewer thinks. M. Cantet also wrote the material for the movie with Robin Campillo. This is, without a doubt, one of the most satisfying films coming from France in recent memory. As he proved with his "Human Resources", M. Cantet loves to present us stories in which characters are at the crossroads of their lives facing dilemmas related to things in the work environment.

If you haven't watched the film, perhaps you should like to stop reading now.

Vincent, the main character of "Time Out", is seen at the beginning of the film driving aimlessly through rural France, stopping at rest stops to sleep, buying things at roadside shops, or just idling around. When he calls his wife Muriel in his cell phone, we hear banal conversation between a married couple where the husband is calling home to check on his family. The only trouble is that Vincent is unemployed and he is reluctant to break the news to the family.

This man has a lovely wife, three normal children. His parents seem to have a good relationship with him. We see no sight of conflict. That is why so hard to understand what makes Vincent tick. Is it shame? Is it an ego thing? Is it his pride? Nothing seems to answer our questions because for all appearances, he is a normal person.

When Vincent hints about the possibility of a job in Geneva with the UN, his father, as well as the rest of the family believes him. Vincent witnesses a meeting in the UN building about the investment opportunities in Africa and how is that body going to be instrumental in helping the emerging economies. Suddenly, Vincent makes a plan to get some of his friends part with their savings by inventing a sure plan with incredible returns. In a way, it seems that people will be reluctant of schemes such as this one, but obviously, greed play a great deal in their minds and they give money to any charlatan. I know it first hand since I have a close friend that lost a lot of money this way, even though he understood about the risks involved.

Jean Michel, the mysterious man that happens to overhear Vincent pitching the idea to prospective investors, realizes the impossibility of the scheme. Vincent tells him about his plight and Jean Michel offers him a job helping him smuggle the counterfeit merchandise that makes a lot of money.

Unfortunately for liars, discovery is only a phone call away. Muriel finds out the truth and confronts Vincent about it. She tells her father in law, who has given an obscene amount of money to Vincent. When the father arrives at the house, Vincent flees into the night to the comforting highways that have become his best friends because they don't ask anything of him. Eventually, Vincent is seen calling Muriel from a roadside. She pleads with him to come home, but he refuses. The turmoil within his soul will not let him see the end of the tunnel. In his own mind, there is no solution for the problem he created.

The director hints to an easy solution for Vincent with an imminent suicide, but no. In the last sequence that ends the picture, we watch a Vincent dressed all in black being interviewed for a job that his father has been instrumental in securing for him. Are we seeing the truth, or are we seeing what the director has brilliantly done in order to get take us to a possibility that will register as the solution in our minds. The only thing is M. Cantet has left us clues about what really becomes of Vincent.

Aurelien Recoing, is a terrific actor. As times he reminds us of Kevin Spacey, and at times, he resembles a more ethereal James Gandolfini, but make no mistake, M. Recoing is an actor who captured the essence of the troubled Vincent. As Muriel, Karin Viard, is perfect. She gives a restrained performance. Also, Serge Livrozet, the kind Jean Michel, makes a wonderful appearance.

We await for the next work by the amazing Laurent Cantet.

Good movie-making and acting

[WhyNotMince · 7/10 · 11 June 2006]

With unemployment very much a concern here in France and many countries in Europe, L'Emploi du temps explores very nicely the way a jobless man maintains his dignity by pretending to still be employed.

To keep up the appearance and keep his pride, he continues with his charade. It is really a touching human story about what a man will go through to keep his dignity in one piece. He travels long hours on the road because it is the only place for him to be at peace.

The actor who plays Vincent is ideal because he does not overplay the part. He is very relateable as the "average joe" full of flaws but also sympathetic. The story is also a commentary on our society and our ideas of what is respectable or not. One does not need to wear a business suit or carry an attache briefcase to be respected.

The director has also done Vers le sud with the great Charlotte Rampling, which I also recommend !

A Masterpiece

[mpofarrell · 10/10 · 17 August 2002]

There is a telling moment toward the end of the new French film L'Emploi Du temps (Time Out) when the main protagonist confides to another character that he hated his previous job so much that many times while driving to a designated business appointment he would intentionally miss the appropriate exit and continue driving aimlessly , not wanting to leave his car. This behavior eventually results in his dismissal , a fact he hides from his family.

A white collar worker who has lost enthusiasm for his job , Vincent spends each "work day" sitting in public parks and eateries fabricating imaginary business meetings and appointments , talking to his wife on a cell phone and promising her that he will be home soon ; for supposed longer trips he sleeps in his car at night , interrupted at times by parking lot security who gruffly tell him to leave, What follows is a devastating tale of lies and more lies , of eroding relationships with wife , children , parents and friends. Vincent finds himself in a nether world and this film's director , Laurent Cantet , brings a chillingly cold but compassionate eye to the proceedings. Curtly refusing help from a former friend and business associate who is aware of his predicament , Vincent becomes enmeshed in a labyrinth of deceitful money making schemes. If all this seems like so much high melodrama , be assured that Mr. Cantet has painted as naturalistic a portrait of one man's modern day angst as has been seen on the screen in many a moon. Here is a filmmaker who possesses a keen eye for ordinary , everyday life. What distinguishes this magnificent film from most contemporary releases is its total lack of artifice. Each sequence in this riveting movie is so spontaneous that it convinces the viewer that what is happening is real. Much of the credit for this must go to Aurelien Recoing as Vincent. A handsome French actor , he portrays a likable fellow encroaching middle age who has lost his way ; as the film progresses , his sturdy frame becomes weighed down as much from literally running away from home and responsibilities as running from himself. Equally impressive is Karin Viard as Vincent's loving but exasperated wife. The movie also benefits immeasurably from the director's penchant for casting on professionals in supporting roles , no better an example than the presence of Serge Livrozet as a petty crook , a character who serves as an important catalyst for the film's gripping denouement. Mr. Livrozet , who acts with the authority of a seasoned professional and turns in a brilliant performance , is in real life an ex-convict who apparently lived the life he portrays on screen. This adds a verisimilitude that makes watching this movie such a sobering experience. As spontaneous as this picture feels , it doesn't lack for a meticulous production design. Elegant camera work , carefully appropriated sets ( the interiors of the Geneva office building Vincent wanders through look as though they were photographed and designed by Stanley Kubrick ) add to the chilly atmosphere. Jocelyn Pook's melancholy chamber music seems suffocatingly oppressive at first but achieves an overwhelming resonance at the story's climax. One man's isolation may not seem like an earth shaking subject for a movie.

Playwrights from Becket to Genet to Miller have traversed this area very eloquently in the past. But Laurent Cantet has fashioned a modern day morality tale that very quietly and methodically builds to a fever pitch of anger , loss and sorrow. The final scene of this film is devastating ; it will fill you with contradictory emotions. It is one of the great endings in movies. L'Emploi Du temps is a giant of a film , a masterpiece for our time.

One man's way of coping

[=G= · 6/10 · 23 February 2003]

"Time Out" is all about a family man, Vincent (Recoing), who loses his job, find himself adrift, and counters with some unusual behavior. This subtitled French film, new on VHS, adheres rigorously to a no frills reality milieu as it explores the character and the nature of one man's approach to unemployment. Those who expect blockbuster-level entertainment will likely be disappointed by this lean flick while those who have been-there-done-that may enjoy it more. Regardless, "Time Out" is a fine piece of work which simply pales next to many other films about much more interesting or exaggerated characters (eg: "Falling Down 1993"). Will likely be most appreciated by more mature adults into foreign flix. (C+)

highly recommended mood movie

[awalter1 · 10/10 · 24 August 2004]

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.

And now for a really good film: L'adversaire

[aveilbrief · 7/10 · 20 March 2005]

L'Emploi du temps is alright, but I found it nowhere near as impressive as L'Adversaire. In this film, the main character Jean-Marc Faure deals with pretty much the same dilemma, and like Vincent, he is incapable of facing reality. But as a psychological portrait, L'adversaire offers so much more. Jean-Marc Faure's (excellent role of Daniel Auteuil) seemingly placid behaviour is extremely disquieting, whereas Vincent (Aurélien Recoing) stays a rather vague character throughout the film. Not for a second his inner struggle and loneliness are as painfully tangible as in L'Adversaire. And that's exactly the sort of feelings an actor should arouse and express in such a delicate role. No thumbs down for L'Emploi du temps, the film has enough to offer, especially when you see it before L'Adversaire. But if you want to see a really chilling film, based on the same story, there's only one thing to do. Go to your video rental store.

What did I miss?

[jonr-3 · 1/10 · 15 March 2003]

Having forced myself to finish watching this tedious and poorly made film only because I was viewing it with a friend--who however fell asleep 2/3 of the way through--and then reading the glowing comments on this board, I find myself baffled. What did I miss?

For me, the performances, with the exception of the role of the smuggler, were mediocre at best. The only halfway complex character was, again, the smuggler.

After twenty minutes of this interminable film, I felt like screaming from boredom. I wish I could have simply fallen asleep like my friend.

Note: I'm not being anti-Gallic in my assessment, which the fervent tributes of my fellow commenters leads me to suspect may even be irrational. My (ancient) college degree is in French, I love French culture, I deeply respect the country, its citizens, and many of its exports... But in honesty I just have to say this strikes me as possibly the worst film I've ever seen. (Until this viewing, the winner for all-time worst was "Signs.")

A subtle, involving, and truly perceptive film

[howard.schumann · 6 May 2002]

Time Out is, in essence, a psychological study of a man who is in "denial" after he loses his job as a Financial Consultant and resorts to lies and deception to keep up the pretense of employment for the sake of his family. Yet it is also a searing portrait of the failure of the workplace to provide a nurturing environment for people (not a theme much explored in the Hollywood assembly line these days).

Time Out is a subtle, involving, and truly perceptive film that deals with the shallow, conformist world of middle management. It depicts how an individual's identity can be so wrapped up in what they do that they can scarcely remember who they really are and what is most meaningful in their life. As Jonathan Rosenbaum has pointed out, it is reminiscent of Melville's "Bartelby the Scrivener" in its depiction of a banal middle-aged businessman who would just prefer not to tell the truth.

Aurélien Recoing (a popular French stage actor) plays Vincent, who is so detached from reality he goes through the motions of pretending to work for the United Nations on a development mission. His "job" is conveniently based away from his wife and three children in Switzerland. Here he spends his hours driving around in his car, going in and out of hotels and conference rooms, exerting as much energy in his pretense as he would if he were actually working. I think the point is that his "pretend" job is different only in degree from his former "real" one.

Cantet uses the business world with its offices, hotels, and associates to portray an individual whose day-to-day activity consists only in constructing a false life. Vincent has to resort to obtaining money under false pretenses from his friends and his father and to assist a petty criminal in his smuggling attempts. For all his lies, Vincent confesses how suffocating his job has been. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do," he cries to his wife, under the pretense of discussing his non-existent new position.

As he stands on the outside looking in, he slowly loses touch with everything that has given his life meaning. His family, who he truly loves, also cannot provide the emotional support he needs. The impression is that the lack of emotional expression, the failure to communicate, and the skimming along on the surface of life is not new to this family. These are the same people who live next door to you, always happy and smiling who seem to have it together until a crisis comes. Then, they have no inner strength to deal with it.

The best movie I've seen since a long time

[saxtouri · 10/10 · 8 March 2003]

Instead of dealing with meteors falling to earth, terrorists with nuclear missiles or cute ladies who have a long time to shag somebody, this movie is talking about some real problems of the modern society: a normal life is a tragedy. We have to work on subjects we hate, for people and enterprises we don't like. Dreaming is not allowed. Family is something that puts more appointments in our already full schedule, and love is corresponding to these commitments. No room for a middle-aged kid to play and leave. Until the kid flips out.

The main character fools everybody, his family, his friends the whole society he is trapped into. He is not a bad guy, he just needs to "steel" some time for himself. And when I say "time for himself", I don't mean having fun in parties with drugs and chicks. This guy prefers to drive his car around while listening to radio and staring from his window the landscape changing, that kind of stuff. He then tries something more adventurous, but I prefer not to continue on the plot, as some people may not have seen the movie yet.

It is simple story, easy to watch but not to thing about it.

Sad, Realistic Film!

[Sylviastel · 8/10 · 31 July 2014]

This French film is a downer but believable to all of us at onetime or another. Vincent has lost his full time job which he was never interested in anyway. He is married with three growing children. Vincent is the Everyman. He creates elaborate web of lies and deception. The actor does a marvelous job. The film has a gloomy appearance and tone. It's a very melancholy film. Vincent is miserable obviously and a prisoner of society. Vincent is bounded by society to care for his wife and family. He seems lost in his world at times. In society, we are expected to work, get married and have children. Vincent has all that but lacks happiness or fulfillment. Vincent is a troubled man who needs help clinically. There are plenty of men like Vincent in the world today. There are men like Vincent who plan and escape their mundane lives whether for a new job or a new mate.

Beautiful, not great

[bandito · 6/10 · 12 December 2003]

Time Out is not a great movie. It's a very beautiful movie, but not a great movie. I'll admit I loved almost every scene in this movie and most scenes haunt for several days, but the end result is something I've experienced too many times. I do respect and admire the evolution of emotional breakdown into horror rather than breakdown into violence the movie presents. Its too bad I spent so much time ready subtitles rather than absorbing the visual details of this carefully crafted piece.

Underseen Gem

[robertbroadhurst · 9/10 · 16 March 2020]

This film has become tough to find at least on US streaming services but if you can find it, watch it.

Building a relationship on lies

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 26 March 2009]

Time Out is loosely based on the true story of a man who lied to his family about having a magnificent job, but actually survived off of the money he defrauded from people in the name of obscure investments. However, the true story is that the man suffered from narcissism and ended up killing his family so that they'd not find out, whereas this movie is not about the gruesome reality but about the failed illusion. The character Vincent in this movie is not a likable character; in fact, he's a real schmuck. However, his desperation and unrealized need drives the drama of a movie that's about corporate entrapment.

Not a whole lot is made clear early in the movie; rather, Cantet builds the movie around the very vagueness that defines the frustrated interactions supporting characters have with Vincent. Even though Vincent is lying to his family, lying to his friends and associates, and lying to everyone who meets on the street, the real power Cantet manages to pull off is making the audience just as dependent emotionally on the lies that Vincent spreads. As such, the revealing of the truth isn't nearly as important as struggling with where Vincent ends up; some people might feel that the ending is a let-down to the tension that's built, but the point is that it could not have happened any other way.

--PolarisDiB

Choosing between lies and truth

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 27 January 2019]

Foreign language films have always been very close to my heart, find them very eye-opening and educational. So has the lovely and very poetic French language, which from experience of studying it at school and at music college is one of the more accessible languages to learn, with not having to learn as many rules or phonetic symbols/alphabets. For instance, Russian is another wonderful language, but seven years on from first starting to learn it there is still confusion translating phonetic symbols and remembering hard and soft signs.

What drew me into seeing Laurent Cantet's films was his themes and subjects. They seemed so intriguing, so realistic and very easy to relate to, and have always liked that in film. 'Time Out', dealing this time in choosing between truth and lies and living a deceptive life, is another fascinating and very well done film of his, though it will never be one of my favourites. 'Time Out' handles its quite disturbing story, and it gets increasingly so, in a way that is mostly quite powerful. It sounds very unsympathetic and difficult to get behind, as dishonesty and deception are not worthwhile traits, but Cantet's storytelling is surprisingly (or at least to me it was) the opposite.

Visually, 'Time Out' did not look cheap and actually gave the film a realism. Some of the shots are quite beautiful surprisingly. Cantet directs with remarkable skill and efficiency, clearly engaging with the material and balancing it surprisingly well. The script is thought-provoking, remarkably nuanced if sparse. The characters do compel and feel real rather than being caricatures. Aurelien Recoing's lead performance is quite astonishing, as is expressive Karin Viard giving depth to a role that could have been thankless or plot-device-like (neither the case).

Really admired much of the storytelling here, which succeeds in not making the tension heavy-handed and making the family drama realistic and easy to relate to. There is tension which increases, but it is of the subtle kind rather than overt. More telling is the emotional impact, enhanced by the most hauntingly beautiful music score of any of Cantet's films perhaps, which made for some very poignant moments. The pace is deliberate and meditative, but it didn't seem dull to me.

Personally would have liked more development and insight into the motivations, with it not always being clear why things happen. 'Time Out' does go on for a little too long, with some of the slight stretches feeling on the dull side.

'Time Out's' ending felt rather abrupt and tacked on.

On the whole though, it is a fascinating and well executed film. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox

A Penetrating Look at the Conformity, Alienation, and Spiritual Emptiness of Modern Life and How One Man Rebels Against It

[writerasfilmcritic · 10/10 · 31 May 2005]

In "Time Out," the acting and writing are superb, the camera work always interesting, and the cello score haunting and melancholy. It is an oversimplification to say that this intelligent movie is about losing one's job and going to unethical extremes to make ends meet, for it is nothing less than a penetrating look at the conformity, alienation, and spiritual emptiness of modern life and how one man rebels against it. Vincent Renault doesn't simply get fired. He courts his firing because he is sick and tired of the shallow yuppie grind, his responsibilities to his young family, and the unrealistic expectations of his affectionate but controlling wife, his overbearing father, and his affluent circle of friends. He has experienced a crisis of confidence following a gradual loss of meaning, and for a guy who "functions on enthusiasm," it's too much to bear. He thus appears to be singularly unmotivated to deal with so-called reality. All he wants to do is "drive around, smoking and listening to the radio," with no obligations to anyone but himself. Sleeping in his car yet in constant touch with home by cell phone, he maintains the illusion of continued employment as a traveling consultant for the French company that terminated him because he can't face the disappointment of his family and friends nor stand up to their renewed pressures upon him. Knowing this facade of normality can't last for long, he invents an exciting new career in Switzerland, somewhat removed from their prying eyes, but the ruse only pushes him deeper into a self-destructive web of lies. Borrowing a large sum from his father "to get set up" and defrauding old acquaintances, he sidesteps the growing concern and suspicion of his wife and avoids the wide-eyed, vaguely accusing stares of his spoiled, middle class children. As he explains to a sympathetic Swiss hotelier, a worldliwise smuggler of cheap knockoffs, he is simply trying "to win some time" before he must face the inevitable. When it comes in the form of a resolution to his dilemma, we sense that his troubled soul has not been palliated in the least.

The Sheepish Rebel

[jcappy · 7/10 · 21 December 2023]

Vincent, the protagonist in "Time Out," when finally fired from his abstracting, jaded job in high finance, hops in his car and hits the open road, hoping to buy time and locate better work. But we soon learn that he himself is not without his own ability to abstract, fictionalize, and compartmentalize. For, to avoid informing his family, he devises an investment scheme--the making of something out of nothing, to finance and cover his absences. In so doing, he self-imposes a new identity which is even less noble from what his miserable employment imposed on him. He still seeks money--and status; still employs savvy and ballsy manipulation; and is as cut off from the real world as his former work demanded. Thus, the impossible contradictions of his exit.

I mean hell it's cute to be out on the road, experiencing timelessness, low end adventure, having fun racing trains, practicing impersonations; but not when your depression-recovering wife is at home raising three young children, teaching school, and constantly worrying about her seemingly unhinged husband. To Muriel, his choice is a luxury, but even her queries must be followed with her apology: "I didn't mean to complain as if my life is hell." "Did you think you had lost me" she says to him provocatively as they descend from his snow-bound mountain cabin. So Vincent's liberation, meditative depth, and playful human-ness is small change to his wife. But it isn't just Muriel who suffers his unraveling persona, his absences, his suspect life, and his snaps, but also his father, his kids, and their dearest friend Jeffrey. Add on the victims of his fraudulent investment scheme, each address-book buddy selected for being easy marks. The thing is it may be okay for Vincent to be a nobody to himself, but he can't be that or less than that to his family or pals.

The most interesting question that "Time Out" seems to raise is: should a fundamental personal decision be made unconsciously? That is, is Vincent by not taking those exits to his business appointments, but driving on into the air of freedom, embracing the road and driving, absorbing life though his windshield, and alone with his thoughts, answering his demoralizing work, or is he just damn escaping it? Since he's clearly blanked out on the personal sphere, it follows that he's also split off from the public dimension. Just as his profession exists outside of the material world in an amoral, vision-less vacuum of economic abstractions, maps, graphs, glossy catalogs, in which human resources and natural resources are interchangeable, so too is his life on the road too soon becoming a mini mock-up of this. Even his pragmatic father, who has zip patience for the fake and airy market culture, not only cannot shake him, but is called a simpleton and an "old ass," by his own son for trying.

If Vincent is stalled with no place to go, Jean-Michel, trafficker in fake brand-name merchandise, and a career hoodlum, not only sizes Vincent up, and bluntly and accurately states his dilemma, but jump starts his way out of it. In recruiting him, he lays bare his new accomplice's lazy ethics, and the pretense and betrayals of his scheming. Only then do Muriel's and Jeffrey's confrontations with Vincent kick in. To her husband's insistence that she seems strange (her bolting from the dinner scene), she can only reply "I seem strange!!" as in who in god's name are you kidding! It's her confessed turning to Jeffrey for help, however, and Vincent's subsequent confrontations with both, that acts as the ultimatum. In the very end, Vincent has made no spirited move. He hasn't found answers to the inner force that drove him from his job. But he has faced his family, lifted himself out of his individuated resolve, dispelled some illusions, and perhaps taken his first step outside the corporate monolith. The only question that remains is: how will his exit from his new anonymous high rise post be any different from the old one? Indeed, alienation/globalization doles out untenable situations to all of us.

Painfully dull

[elliott-34 · 1/10 · 7 August 2005]

This has to be one of the most painfully dull, awful films I have ever had the misfortune to sit through in my entire life. You'd have more fun having your nails pulled out with a pair of pliers. I went to see this at the its Premier at the London Film Festival. The cinema was full - the director had a strong reputation following his success with "Human Resources". What followed was a yawnathon about a bloke I was never persuaded to care about who pretends to his family and friends that he has a job at the UN. And? Well, that's about as exciting as it gets. Take my advice - don't take time to watch this pile of Frogspawn. Bon chance.

Highly nuanced psychological thriller

[Camera-Obscura · 20 March 2007]

TIME OUT (Laurent Cantet - France 2001).

The English language title Time Out is not entirely fitting. Perhaps Time Running Out would be a more appropriate title, since this is exactly what Vincent, the main character, is going through.

Vincent (Aurélien Recoing) is a highly motivated financial consultant. Or, at least, that's what he used to be. Fact of the matter is, he lost his job three months ago and now concocts an elaborate facade to cover up the fact he is now unemployed. While his wife, Muriel (Karin Viard), thinks he's at work, Vincent is aimlessly roaming the highways, hanging out at rest stops, and sleeping in his car, regularly calling his wife to give her an update about his next meeting and apologizing for coming home late, before turning in for his overnight stay in his car. Vincent lives like a ghost, increasingly detached from his wife, children and former colleagues, he doesn't seem to realize the truth is closing in. One day, they will find out. But Vincent has gotten to a point where he's constructed his own dream world. He resorts to reading all kinds of economic pamphlets about his apparent line of business, studying and memorizing them like he really is active in this line of work. As Vincent needs money, he makes up a plan to defraud old friends and his parents out of their savings by letting them in on some bogus investment scheme. He conducts his business out of a hotel lounge, where he catches the eye of Jean-Michel (Serge Livrozet, a brilliant role), a "real" , experienced operator who immediately recognizes Vincent is a fraud. He offers Vincent a job in his own operation, meaning some extra pocket money and perhaps even a way out of his increasingly sticky situation.

Director Cantet's style is distinctly unflashy. Set against the wintry landscapes of Rhône-Alpes around Grenoble and Annecy, the film makes very good use of its locations. Whether it's the bland office complexes in the "zones commerciales" at the outskirts of anonymous towns, or the snow-clad mountains surrounding them, it seems to blend perfectly with the film's tone. Accompanied by a beautiful classical score, Cantet shows himself a remarkably sharp and observant storyteller. Although the film maintains interest throughout, the running time of 132 minutes did seem a tad long, and Vincent's lengthy economic arguments when conning his friends and relatives (some of them business men themselves) out of their money weren't terribly convincing. His arguments range from unconvincing to downright nonsense. At least he would'n have convinced me, but even my 91 year old grandmother wouldn't have bought any of this for a moment. But, some of these inconsistencies aside, this is a skilfully constructed film and an engrossing psychological drama that slowly unfolds like a thriller with a brilliant performance by Aurélien Recoing to top it off.

Camera Obscura --- 8/10