a confident, richly acted, emotionally devastating piece of work and 2002's first great film
Time Out (2002)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:82
Fresh:79
Rotten:3
Average Rating:8/10
Consensus: A haunting psychological drama, Time Out takes a penetrating look at the angst of the modern worker.
Runtime: 2 hrs 14 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Mar 29, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: Vincent (Aurelien Recoing) spends a lot of time in his car. He sleeps in his car sometimes, parked in highway truck stops where buses full of school children pass through during the daytime, and at... Vincent (Aurelien Recoing) spends a lot of time in his car. He sleeps in his car sometimes, parked in highway truck stops where buses full of school children pass through during the daytime, and at night stragglers lost en route stop to drink and tell their stories. Having been fired from his job over a month ago, he is a man running from the truth. Unable to admit his unemployed status to his family, he goes to great lengths to convince his wife and three young children that he spends busy days hard at work. He makes phone calls home talking of meetings and appointments, then returns home complaining of fatigue from being overworked. In fact, he drives around a lot, meanders in and out of office buildings, picks up pieces of information and pages through vague research that does not seem to be part of any cohesive goal or plan. The menacing part of it all is that the closer we get to Vincent, the more he seems to convince himself, and us, that he's telling the truth. And the resulting psychological trickery is positively creepy. This French mystery from director Laurent Cantet (HUMAN RESOURCES) carries an eerie chill that seems inexplicable. While the story seems simple enough, Vincent's lies and the way that he manipulates people--especially his family--are expertly conveyed with cold, steady camerawork and a beguiling performance from Recoing. [More]
Starring: Aurelien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot
Starring: Aurelien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot, Nicolas Kalsch
Director: Laurent Cantet
Director: Laurent Cantet
Screenwriter: Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet
Producer: Caroline Benjo
Composer: Jocelyn Pook
Studio: ThinkFilm
Get This Movie
Rent DVD
Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.
Buy DVD
Release:
Jan 14, 2003
Reviews for Time Out
From those first moments behind the windshield, Time Out draws you into its world of quiet deception.
Leave it to the French to truly capture the terrifying angst of the modern working man without turning the film into a cheap thriller, a dumb comedy or a sappy melodrama.
A sad, visually stunning commentary on life in the new economy, Time Out does two things very well.
A brilliantly executed picture, part psychological thriller and part domestic drama.
Cantet beautifully illuminates what it means sometimes to be inside looking out, and at other times outside looking in.
...a quietly introspective portrait of the self-esteem of employment and the shame of losing a job...
Somber rather than zany, Time Out captures the languid pace of unemployment.
I admire the closing scenes of the film, which seem to ask whether our civilization offers a cure for Vincent's complaint.
A taut psychological thriller that doesn't waste a moment of its two-hour running time.
Writer-director Cantet, the filmmaker responsible for the similarly provocative Human Resources, has an extremely arid sensibility.
Recoing is an astonishing actor, capable of making scenes in which nothing at all happens mesmerizing.
Time Out is not just an especially subtle and thoughtful psychological drama, it's a provocative, even an unnerving one as well.
Time Out is an exhaustively complex look at what work, and the lack of it, means and does to an individual. That these effects are rarely predictable and always persuasive marks the picture as a thoughtful original.
In its treatment of the dehumanizing and ego-destroying process of unemployment, Time Out offers an exploration that is more accurate than anything I have seen in an American film.
It's a subtle mood piece in which a man's collapse is examined so rigorously that one almost hopes for a murder to come along and break the tension.
Cantet is singularly skilled at evoking the universal condition of such tragic ordinariness.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Fresh Links
Featured

MSN Movies offers a little background on the success of Disney Animation.

TIME takes a look back at the history of vampires on film.

Techland examines the visual splendor of Peter Jackson's upcoming film.

AOL put together a list of 10 recent news items that would be perfect as TV Movies.

Hollywood.com's C. Robert Cargill explores how remakes and reboots have warped our thinking.
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic


