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Apr 21, 2017Nursebob rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Reminiscent of Lars Von Trier’s austere “Dogme 95” school of filmmaking, writer/director Stéphane Brizé’s small morality play uses handheld shots and natural performances unembellished by studio sets, fancy camerawork, or background music. The result is a verité style which, thanks to Lindon’s perfectly downplayed working class protagonist, makes even the most mundane passage somehow compelling as Thierry suffers through a series of everyday humiliations—one scene in which a class of fellow job-seekers critique his interview style is particularly cringeworthy. In fact every character in Brizé’s film seems culled from real life making it impossible to distinguish scripted word from ad-libbed banter especially the scenes where suspects, caught red-handed, are hauled into the store’s interrogation room squirming and gaping like deer in the proverbial headlights. Brizé miscalculates however when in his zeal to pit these downtrodden proles against a soulless corporate nemesis he skews the whole production with a heavy sense of moral superiority. Apparently every thief has a noble excuse and every excuse resonates with Thierry’s own righteousness: one shoplifter has a drug-addicted son to support (oh wow, and Thierry has a son with cerebral palsy!) and another is struggling on a fixed income (oh wow, Thierry knows exactly how THAT feels!). But when one apprehension ends in a rather contrived tragedy you realize just how eager Brizé is to preach to the choir. The ethically correct and wholly predictable closing scene will certainly have hardcore liberals clapping ecstatically while everyone else files out of the theatre. Finally, just in case the audience doesn’t “get it”, the original French title translates as "The Law of the Market". Got it?