Modest in scale, scope, and, despite the tough circumstances its character must endure, emotional register, The Measure of a Man is primarily carried by the magnificent Vincent Lindon, as dependable and admirable as any actor working in film today. It might make sense, then, that its general reception — including from the jury at last year’s Cannes — has focused on performance and, at most, been complimentary toward Stéphane Brizé‘s Dardenne-esque screenplay and direction.
If nothing else, I certainly raise that comparison as a compliment and think the film is generally worth giving time to. The opportunity will begin when Kino start rolling out the film next month; ahead of that, get a taste of what it offers with a new, fairly representative trailer. As we said in our review, “Aside from [Lindon]’s performance, there are other elements to appreciate within its overt commentary on how difficult it can be to find and maintain a job in the contemporary economic climate. While this was a fitting skeleton for the film’s message, its peripheral commentaries and the ability to hint at factors beneath the surface of the plot is where the film excels.”
Watch it below:
Synopsis:
Vincent Lindon gives his finest performance to date as unemployed everyman Thierry, who must submit to a series of quietly humiliating ordeals in his search for work. Futile retraining courses that lead to dead ends, interviews via Skype, an interview-coaching workshop critique of his self-presentation by fellow jobseekers; all are mechanisms that seek to break him down and strip him of identity and self-respect in the name of reengineering of a workforce fit for a neoliberal technocratic system. Nothing if not determinist, Stéphane Brizé film dispassionately monitors the progress of its stoic protagonist until at last he lands a job on the front line in the surveillance and control of his fellow man and finally faces one too many moral dilemmas. A powerful and deeply troubling vision of the realities of our new economic order.
The Measure of a Man will begin its theatrical run on April 15.