Time Out (L’ Emploi du temps) (2001)
89%RT Audience Score: 80%
Awards & Nominations: 5 wins & 7 nominations
Time Out is a film that defies easy categorization, much like its enigmatic protagonist. With a devastatingly understated performance by Recoing, the film is both suspenseful and melancholy, exploring themes of identity and alienation with unfussy poetry. While some critics may find fault with the lack of disclosure in the plot, the film’s engaging character study probes far deeper than most American films dare to tread. Cantet’s direction places him at the forefront of a new generation of exciting Gallic directors, and Time Out is a must-see for anyone looking for a thought-provoking and intelligent cinematic experience.
Time Out is a movie that will leave you feeling like you just got laid off from your job. It’s a serious and melancholic film that explores the impact of unemployment on one man’s life. But don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom. The movie is stylish and suspenseful, and the lead actor’s understated performance is devastatingly good. Plus, it’s a French film, so you can pretend you’re all cultured and stuff while you watch it. Just don’t expect any explosions or car chases.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
Seville Pictures
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Casey Key Swing Bridge, Sarasota, Florida, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, violence and some language.
Year of Release
2003
-
Color:Color
-
Sound mix:DTS Dolby Digital
-
Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
-
Runtime:2h 14m
-
Language(s):English
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Mar 29, 2002 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 14, 2003
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Aurélien Recoing, Karine Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot, Monique Mangeot, Nicolas Kalsch, directed by Laurent Cantet, written by Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet, drama, PG-13, box office gross $448.4K, reviewed by Jonathan Rosenbaum, David Ansen, Marrit Ingman, Peter Rainer, Jay Boyar, Desson Thomson, Yasser Medina, David Walsh, B Ruby Rich, John A Nesbit, Emanuel Levy, Mark Halverson, psychological drama, modern worker, lies, investment scheme, unemployment, family, identity, alienation, French (Canada), Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR, Flat (1.85:1), Caroline Benjo, Seville Pictures
Worldwide gross: $55,495,563
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $89,951,190
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,073
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 9,809,290
US/Canada gross: $41,088,845
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $66,599,748
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 946
US/Canada opening weekend: $16,185,316
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $26,234,321
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 522
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $50,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $81,043,587
Production budget ranking: 517
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $43,641,972
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$34,734,369
ROI to date (est.): -28%
ROI ranking: 1,551
Karine Viard – Muriel
Serge Livrozet – Jean-Michel
Jean-Pierre Mangeot – Father
Monique Mangeot – Mother
Nicolas Kalsch – Julien
Robin Campillo – Writer
Laurent Cantet – Writer, Director
Caroline Benjo – Producer
Director(s)
Laurent Cantet
Writer(s)
Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet
Producer(s)
Caroline Benjo
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
5 wins & 7 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (86) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (82) | Rotten (4)
October 15, 2009 | Rating: 4/4
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
Time Out is stylish and hushed, at once suspenseful and melancholy. It can’t be neatly fitted into a genre, just as its hero–played with devastating understatement by Recoing–can’t be easily dismissed as a psycho or a villain.
November 1, 2007
David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
March 10, 2003 | Rating: 3.5/5
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
January 16, 2003
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine/Vulture
TOP CRITIC
Time Out is as serious as a pink slip. And more than that, it’s an observant, unfussily poetic meditation about identity and alienation.
August 2, 2002 | Rating: 4/5
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
The drama discloses almost nothing.
May 10, 2002
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
TOP CRITIC
As it progresses, I have the feeling that the portrait about mythomania and unemployment is leading nowhere and is as unnecessary as it is forgettable. [Full review in Spanish]
May 29, 2021 | Rating: 5/10
Yasser Medina
Cinemaficionados
The film is loosely based on the case of Jean-Claude Romand, who fooled his family for 18 years, claiming to be a researcher for the World Health Organization, before his world collapsed and he murdered his wife and parents.
February 16, 2021
David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
Here, [Cantet] seems to tell us, nothing can compare with the violence experienced by any human caught up in mindless white-collar management, whether working or laid off.
February 28, 2020
B. Ruby Rich
The Nation
engaging character study that probes far deeper than American films dare tread
July 8, 2011 | Rating: B
John A. Nesbit
Old School Reviews
Laurent Cantet’s sophomore film, a brilliant character study of the impact of unemployment on one ordinary man’s life and personality, places him at the forefront of a new generation of exciting Gallic directors.
January 2, 2009 | Rating: A
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
August 7, 2008 | Rating: 3/5
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review…
Plot
Matt Whitlock, the police chief of the small town of Banyan Key, Florida, is separated from his wife, Alex, a police homicide detective in MIami. Matt’s been having an affair with Ann Merai Harrison, a woman who’s separated from her abusive husband, Chris, and says she has cancer, as well. When her doctor tells her of a new expensive treatment, Matt decides to give her the nearly half a million dollars in an evidence lock up that he seized from a local drug bust. When Ann and her husband turn up dead only days after naming Chief Whitlock as beneficiary on a million dollar Life insurance policy, things start heating up for Whitlock as the evidence his wife Alex is gathering stacks up against him. And as if things couldn’t get worse, the D.E.A. now want the drug money a.s.a.p. Anxiety runs high for Whitlock as he scrambles to figure out who has set him up and also recover half a million dollars all while trying not to break a sweat or draw any suspicions. He’s a man who is way out of his depth, nearly out of luck, and desperately close to being out of time.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Fresh Kernels doesn’t have anything goofy or funny to say about Time Out, but they do mention that the lead actor, Aurélien Recoing, gives a “devastating understatement” performance.
Laurent-Cantet.jpg
