The Measure of a Man. French star Vincent Lindon gives a powerful lead turn as an unemployed father trying to scrape by in Stephane Brize’s sturdy competition drama
TEAMING UP ONCE AGAIN FOR A FILM that leaves many things unsaid while saying a whole lot, director Stephane Brize and star Vincent Lindon offer up an impressive foray into social drama with the working-class chronicle.
The Measure of a Man (La Loi du Marche). Highlighted by an all-consuming lead performance from Lindon — surrounded by a cast of nonprofessionals — this third collaboration strays further into Dardennes-brothers territory than previous efforts, although its depiction of an average Joe scraping by in contemporary France features its own unique voice.
The film is modest but effective in execution, even if its ending feels a tad predictable. Yet the gripping portrait of current socioeconomic woes should speak directly to French audiences, while overseas action could equal or surpass that of the director’s 2009 Mademoiselle Chambon, which grossed more than $500,000 for its U.S. release.
A jolt of an opening throws us into the action, as we watch 50-something factory worker Thierry (Lindon) digest the Kafka-esque explanations of an unemployment officer (Yves Ory) trying to land him a job. With cinematographer Eric Dumont focusing his handheld camera on Thierry’s contained rage, the filmmakers employ a casually immersive technique repeated throughout the movie, placing their hero in situations that constantly test his endurance in a world that no longer has any use for solid blue-collar types like him.
The script (by Brize and Olivier Gorce) cuts back and forth between Thierry’s efforts to find work and his rather serene home life, although one in which he and his wife (Karine de Mirbeck) need to provide constant care for a mentally handicapped son (Matthieu Schaller). Lindon has portrayed these kinds of tough, stoic men in the past, and his hardened physique gives him an intensity laced with deep sadness. As Thierry takes in even more bad news, you just want him to sock it to everyone he’s dealing with. The power of the film is that he can’t, holding himself back to do the right thing and pay the bills.
A narrative ellipsis reveals Thierry working later as a supermarket security guard, allowing Brize to insert some levity into what’s been a particularly grim scenario. There’s a scene at once troubling and funny, made up entirely of CCTV footage, including a lengthy tracking shot across the store’s main aisle. Yet even those moments of respite soon give way to bitter reality: to survive at the new job, Thierry needs to humiliate others.
While the filmmaker’s vision of France is far from glamorous, it’s not without warmth, especially during moments where Thierry enjoys the comforts of the home he so desperately tries to keep. A standout sequence has him and his wife taking dance lessons with a teacher (Noel Mairot) who winds up cutting in between them, the camera lingering on Lindon’s deadpan expression in a welcome bit of comedy. Brize mines such fleeting instants of joy in an atmosphere of postindustrial gloom, revealing people seeking their own small slice of happiness. The idea of casting nonpros alongside Lindon makes this approach feel all the more authentic, and the characters he encounters seem marked by the same struggle as Thierry.
In that sense, The Measure of a Man feels slightly didactic, and while the scenes are often surprising, they don’t build to a strong conclusion. It’s as if the film’s politics trumped its storytelling, although Brize has been clear from the first scene what the message is: There’s only so much a man can take.
In Competition // Cast Vincent Lindon, Karine de Mirbeck, Matthieu Schaller, Francoise Anselmi Director Stephane Brize // 93 minutes
