Dog with job

>> L’Emploi du temps works over the 9 to 5 routine


by MATTHEW HAYS

That our daily work can be a dreaded drudgery can hardly be news, but in the hands of French director Laurent Cantet, the theme of employment overtaking one’s life is given an innovative and disturbing twist.
Based loosely on a true story, the film has Aurelien Recoing playing a man who loses his rather dreary middle management job at a corporation. Rather than upset his family (a wife and three kids), he doesn’t tell them, instead pretending to head off to work in the morning and, to pass the time, sleeps in his car in parking lots and wherever else he can loiter. It’s a bizarre little tale, one that rests heavily on the subtle turn by Recoing.

The plot thickens as Recoing hatches a dicey plan to make some money. He tells his family that he’s landed a job at the UN, instead delving into a dodgy venture which involves him soliciting money from various old business contacts and friends for a new investment (one that doesn’t exist). Recoing manoeuvres through the film nervously. He knows things are a mess, but can’t quite face up to telling his family the sad truth about his work situation.
Many films have tackled the issue of work overcoming our existences as human beings. In Falling Down, vigilante Michael Douglas faked going to work after losing his job; perhaps most famously, Kevin Spacey got out of his nasty corporate gig via blackmail in American Beauty (and took up at the local burger joint instead); and locally, Philippe Falardeau handled the dilemma beautifully with his faux doc Left Side of the Fridge.

But despite the well-trodden turf, L’Emploi du temps (which has been released in the U.S. as Time Out) manages a different spin. Instead of wildly dramatic scenes, we’re given fleeting moments that point up the existential dilemma Recoing faces. Instead of tidy, maudlin conclusions, the film is handed an ambiguous closure. As despairing as it is, this film gives us reason to rejoice: L’Emploi du temps punches the clock—both literally and intelligently. :

L’Emploi du temps opens Friday, Feb. 15 at Ex-Centris in French with English subtitles