Time Out (2001) ***

Reviewed 10/1/01

In his second feature, Laurent Cantet certainly shows he has a good eye in utilizing camera placement for emotional effect.  A balding, middle-age man, Vincent (Aurélien Recoing) has a beautiful family, devoted wife Muriel (Karin Viard) and three children, but he has problems at work.  Fired from his old job and with no desire to hold a real one, he fashions an elaborate façade as a United Nations entrepreneurial consultant to developing countries in Africa.  To care for his family, he bilks acquaintances by telling them of a lavish investment opportunity.  Maintaining an understated visual style, Cantet creates provocative tension simply by having people innocently inquire about Vincent’s new work.  The film spends too much time teasing the audience as to whether Vincent really has a job and is never quite convincing about Vincent’s motivation to go to such bizarre lengths.  On the other hand, Recoing and Viard give such pitch-perfect performances that it is hard to take your eyes off them.  Then there is Serge Livrozet playing a kind-hearted smuggler.  He has a presence that is simultaneously odd, amusing, and intriguing.  He’d be perfect in a David Lynch film.