The Measure of a Man (2015)

If Ken Loach and his team didn't see this movie before making I Daniel Blake I'd be amazed. Not in any way a copy, The Measure of a Man takes the same sympathetic look at ordinary people's grim tortured lives as I Daniel Blake. I came to this film completely cold and was immediately gripped by its grittiness, its cinema verite style and its quite outstanding performances. Particularly memorable, the horrific 'Big-Brother-Is -Watching-You' CCTV security system in the supermarket which pries into every detail of anyone either shopping or working on the premises, especially on the tills. No one is beyond suspicion,it seems. When the film's protagonist,a security guard, arrests a succession of shoplifters and till staff, the tension between his need to do his job correctly and his sympathy for his 'victims' is incredibly gut wrenching. This film says an awful lot about how the world of work and the world of unemployment REALLY work with refreshing and moving honesty.

Fmovies: people seem to be missing the point on this. This is life how it happens. There is no great drama in a lot of our lives, just overcoming difficulties or succumbing to them. The protagonist here shows an incredible amount of grace when faced with many difficult situations. He's tried, over and over again, to do what is asked of him, most of it is reasonable, but it seldom actually helps his situation. It is very, very well acted and well photographed. I think it is like a modern Agnes Varda. You have to educate yourself and/or face a few situations like these shown to appreciate a film like this. I think folks are missing the point. Is the life portrayed common? Yes. Does the man try to rise above the things that have happened to him? Yes. Does he do so with a true sense of what is important and what isn't? Yes. Does he do so with a huge amount of grace? Yes, I think so, and that what impressed me most. It really does show what the measure of a man should be.

I walked out of this film after about forty minutes, so take my comments accordingly.

This film is well directed, acted, and shot. It effectively portrays the hell its very sympathetic protagonist is going through. It's a story worth telling. The actors are superb.

It's just way too slow. Every scene that I saw (and after 40 minutes, I believe that I had seen a total of about six of them--at least, that's what it felt like)was about three times as long as it had to be. The scene made its point, and then just kept going. And going. And going.

I get it: The protagonist, a good and decent man, is being abused by. . . well, just about everyone. I got it after the first 30 seconds of the first scene. All he can do is take his next punch and keep on keeping on.

The first thing I did when I got home was check the total running time for this film: 91 minutes. In other words, about the minimum acceptable length for a feature. And that's almost always the case with films that move this slowly: The writer (invariably also the director) doesn't have enough ideas or story to sustain a feature. So he just stretches every scene long past the point it should be stretched.

What you end up with is a painfully slow, paper-thin film.

The Measure of a Man fmovies. The Measure Of a Man

As a person grows older, so does the amount of responsibility. The carefree days slowly fade away and eventually the 9-5 grind becomes the norm. One common fear for this majority is the loss of income. Nothing's scarier than losing your income and having to figure out how to pay for thousands of dollars worths of bills. Most individuals don't have enough to last 2-3 months. Most don't even have 1,000 dollars saved. This with many other factors can be a death sentence for people, and The Measure of a Man presents this fear in a harrowing light

The Measure of a Man (directed by Stéphane Brizé) follows an unemployed factory worker (played by Vincent Lindon) by the name of Thierry Taugourdeau, in working-class France. With the combination of age and only have a niche set of skills, finding work proves to be an obstacle.

The director pulls no stops when it comes to grounding the film in reality. The film almost seems like some sad documentary. Each conversation scripted to be as grounded as possible. One example would be the scene right from the beginning. It establishes in the first couple of minutes just how dire Thierry's situation is. You watch as her argues with agency worker, explaining how he just spent months training to be a crane operator, just to find out that experience plays a huge factor in the hiring process. You see how much this weighs on him, and how it affects the people around him.

The film comes with no score, other than the one song for the credits at the end of the film. Another decision made to contribute to the realism of the film. No dramatic cues telling you how to feel. This was a risky movie, and fell onto the actors to actively convey the emotions in the film. This decision, for the most part, pans out perfectly. The only times it doesn't work out is when the scenes seem to drag on just a little too long, which seems like a reoccuring theme. During the film, there's a scene where Thierry and his wife (played by Karine de Mirbeck), are selling their mobile home they used for vacation. They haggle on the price, and the awkward exchange feels qeniue at first. Eventually, it goes on for too long, and you feel like it's a little forced. Thankfully, these scenes are few in between.

The Measure of a Man presents a fear that any working person has time to time. I would almost say this is the best horror thriller of the year based on the fact that it presents you with a real world problem, and makes you feat it. I've never felt more drive to do my job than after I saw this film. The amazing performances combined with the realism provided by the script creates a film that leaves you wondering "What if this happened to me?"

8/10

A Ken Loach-a-like - showing real lives at a genuine pace, but without the hard edge. If the movie set out to show the crushing mundanity of the the lives of working class people, it succeeds. However, do not be put of by this, as the main protagonist manages to demonstrate a dignity throughout. Nevertheless, do not expect a hubris- cum-nemesis tale. It looks at the workaday politics that the majority of life's cannon fodder are forced to negotiate. A scene in which his performance at interview is analysed by peers is upsetting, demonstrating the schadenfreude characteristic of the socially-challenged, enjoying the notion that somebody is worse off than themselves... If you like Loach derivatives, you will certainly enjoy this.

A very fine movie about life in the modern global economy. First the hero is cheated by a so-called training business center when he finds out there's no chance of his being hired for what he was trained in and the business knew it (see Trump and his so-called university -- but what do we expect from an illiterate egomaniac?). The hero who is barely hanging on to middle class life by his fingernails is constantly humiliated or badgered by experts who are "trying" to help. He winds up with a job at a box store in security where he sees people/customers humiliated, long term clerks fired for minor infractions caught on CCTV (that's the object, the co. -- a Walmart copycat -- is trying to trim down the staff and goes after long-term employees, one of whom commits suicide on the store premises). The hero also has a son with multiple sclerosis who has to pass inspection in order to qualify for college. This is what the social/economic net boils down to. The director is telling the truth ...