French Film Reviews: The Measure of a Man

Director Brizé sticks with his preferred leading man (he and Vincent Lindon previously combined in Mademoiselle Chambon and A Few Hours of Spring) for this Loach-esque humanist portrayal of a factory worker struggling to maintain both his dignity and household in the face of unemployment.

Lindon delivers a magnificent performance (for which he won the acting prizes at Cannes and the Césars last year), not just in his sunken eyes but in the slow gait and hunched shoulders of a broken man forced by circumstance to become a store detective. A tale for the times; compelling and serious.

Film: The Measure of a Man

Director: Stéphane Brizé

Cert: 15

Running time: 93 mins

From France Today magazine