Measure of a Man is the English title of Stéphane Brizé's La Loi du marché starring Vincent Lindon as Thierry Taugourdeau, a middle-aged factory worker who finds himself out of a job and having great difficulty in finding a new one.
Brize used non-professional actors in the roles opposite Lindon, shooting it in a cinéma vérité style.
The first half of the film is fairly interesting, chronicling the difficulties suddenly downsized workers encounter after working in the same job for many years.
Thierry is seen complaining to the employment agency worker about how he wasted his time and money taking a crane operator course only to discover he still would not be hired due to a lack of actual experience on the job.
An attorney tries to convince Thierry to become part of a class-action lawsuit against his former employer but Thierry wants none of that explaining simply that he wants to "move on."
In his quest for documentary-like realism, director Brizé tends to drag out scenes (which basically amount to a series of vignettes) detailing aspects of Thierry's life as he navigates the unchartered territory of the unemployed.
Some scenes are effective such as when a potential employer lamely criticizes his resume and basically tells him he has virtually no chance of being hired. Thierry also has an interesting but long-winded discussion with his banker, rejecting her suggestion to sell his house to cover various expenses he must deal with as a result of now being unemployed.
Less successful are tangential drawn out scenes including the dance lessons he takes with his wife as well as the failed negotiations with a potential buyer of the couples' mobile home which they put up for sale-again to make ends meet.
Adding to the verisimilitude is the couple's teenage son Matthieu who has cerebral palsy. But Brizé unfortunately does not develop the wife's part at all, and she ends up having little to do throughout.
The second half of the film focuses on Thierry after he obtains a job in the security department of a large department store. In the first half Thierry is pro-active and is a sympathetic character striving to support his family.
But once employed, he's now a passive character and takes on more of an observational role in his job dealing with shoplifters and wayward employees who attempt to game the system.
Brizé wants us to have sympathy for all those caught in the security department's net basically arguing that they are victims of an unfeeling capitalist system.
Even the first shoplifter we meet has a potent excuse: a criminal outside the store forced him to steal a cell phone charger through intimidation. There are others including an elderly man who steals some meat but has no extra money to pay for it or relatives to help him.
Worse yet is a long-trusted employee accused of pocketing coupons. She's unceremoniously fired and then commits suicide while on the job (all this happens off screen and is communicated to us through a meeting a store official holds with Thierry and his fellow employees).
Brizé cleverly uses surveillance camera footage to show how the various techniques shoplifters employ as they try and steal items from the store.
Brizé stacks the deck as none of the shoplifters are shown to be unsavory in the least. Thierry is now reduced to being part of the "system," a passive observer of various indignities that happen to other people even worse off than he is.
Brizé shows a lack of imagination in his plotting as he never resolves Thierry's story. On the DVD extras, Brizé suggests Thierry is a hero. I'm not sure why. At film's end, does Thierry decide to quit the job? It's unclear.
Whatever the case is, Brizé's film ends abruptly with his protagonist's fate unresolved.
Whatever sympathy we have for Thierry is mitigated by the director's bleeding-heart liberalism-an unbalanced view of victims and victimizers which compromises the film's overall verisimilitude.
Brize used non-professional actors in the roles opposite Lindon, shooting it in a cinéma vérité style.
The first half of the film is fairly interesting, chronicling the difficulties suddenly downsized workers encounter after working in the same job for many years.
Thierry is seen complaining to the employment agency worker about how he wasted his time and money taking a crane operator course only to discover he still would not be hired due to a lack of actual experience on the job.
An attorney tries to convince Thierry to become part of a class-action lawsuit against his former employer but Thierry wants none of that explaining simply that he wants to "move on."
In his quest for documentary-like realism, director Brizé tends to drag out scenes (which basically amount to a series of vignettes) detailing aspects of Thierry's life as he navigates the unchartered territory of the unemployed.
Some scenes are effective such as when a potential employer lamely criticizes his resume and basically tells him he has virtually no chance of being hired. Thierry also has an interesting but long-winded discussion with his banker, rejecting her suggestion to sell his house to cover various expenses he must deal with as a result of now being unemployed.
Less successful are tangential drawn out scenes including the dance lessons he takes with his wife as well as the failed negotiations with a potential buyer of the couples' mobile home which they put up for sale-again to make ends meet.
Adding to the verisimilitude is the couple's teenage son Matthieu who has cerebral palsy. But Brizé unfortunately does not develop the wife's part at all, and she ends up having little to do throughout.
The second half of the film focuses on Thierry after he obtains a job in the security department of a large department store. In the first half Thierry is pro-active and is a sympathetic character striving to support his family.
But once employed, he's now a passive character and takes on more of an observational role in his job dealing with shoplifters and wayward employees who attempt to game the system.
Brizé wants us to have sympathy for all those caught in the security department's net basically arguing that they are victims of an unfeeling capitalist system.
Even the first shoplifter we meet has a potent excuse: a criminal outside the store forced him to steal a cell phone charger through intimidation. There are others including an elderly man who steals some meat but has no extra money to pay for it or relatives to help him.
Worse yet is a long-trusted employee accused of pocketing coupons. She's unceremoniously fired and then commits suicide while on the job (all this happens off screen and is communicated to us through a meeting a store official holds with Thierry and his fellow employees).
Brizé cleverly uses surveillance camera footage to show how the various techniques shoplifters employ as they try and steal items from the store.
Brizé stacks the deck as none of the shoplifters are shown to be unsavory in the least. Thierry is now reduced to being part of the "system," a passive observer of various indignities that happen to other people even worse off than he is.
Brizé shows a lack of imagination in his plotting as he never resolves Thierry's story. On the DVD extras, Brizé suggests Thierry is a hero. I'm not sure why. At film's end, does Thierry decide to quit the job? It's unclear.
Whatever the case is, Brizé's film ends abruptly with his protagonist's fate unresolved.
Whatever sympathy we have for Thierry is mitigated by the director's bleeding-heart liberalism-an unbalanced view of victims and victimizers which compromises the film's overall verisimilitude.