The Measure of a Man

Released Apr 15, 2016

1h 33m

Drama

List

92%

64 Reviews

Tomatometer

60%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

At the age of 51, Thierry starts a new job that soon brings him face to face with a moral dilemma.

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Critics Consensus

With The Measure of a Man, director/co-writer Stéphane Brizé uses one man's heartrending story as a beautifully acted microcosm for life in the 21st-century global economy.

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Nawt W

Ironically, it takes too long for the movie to give Vincent Lindon a job, making the first half of the movie a domestic montage that perpetually drives home a single point: unqualified people do not get priority on the job market. I've seen it done miles better in "Mondays in the Sun," without resorting to static, 5-minute-long dialogue scenes. The subsequent job sure ends up being the most thoughtful part of the movie, as Thierry tries to balance shreds of his integrity with being a wage slave in a cage. Ultimately, the measure of a man is apparently not snitching on your coworkers' petty thefts because the working class needs to shoplift to survive. This is a silly observation, but what is even sillier is the director's belief that this ending is in any way a defiance of capitalism's windmill.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

French social commentary, so yeah...

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

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Audience Member

Todos pasamos por algo similar al buscar trabajo y cuando pasan cosas raras en los trabajos. 4 stars

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

richard i

It's a lot to ask of Vincent Lindon to carry this whole film, but he does his excellent best with a story in which we find precious little out about him, really, other than that he accepts his lot with a certain amount of stoicism, while the people around him remain fairly opaque to us. The clearly largely improvised script is delivered convincingly on the whole, but the attempt to give us an 'insight' into the way capitalism divides us is a bit fluffed and has been done better before. Nowhere near as good as Mademoiselle Chambon, a true classic of this observational genre.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

Extremely slow and meticulous, but totally realistic.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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Audience Member

This Cannes-winning sociological drama gives a discerning gaze with fly-on-the-wall long takes on the adversities braved on by a stoic French unemployed everyman and his painful moral dilemma on the other side of the fence in his later employment as a supermarket security guard.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

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Stéphane Brizé

Director

Vincent Lindon

Thierry Taugourdeau

Yves Ory

le conseiller de Pôle Emploi

Karine De Mirbeck

la femme de Thierry

Matthieu Schaller

Matthieu

Xavier Mathieu

le collègue syndicaliste

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Welcome

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At War

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Girlhood

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Another World

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Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

The Blue Lenses

In scene after scene, Brizé exposes with an unrelenting focus the incessant scrutiny that those living in poverty like Thierry are placed under by those in positions of power above him.

Aug 25, 2018

Full Review

Moira MacDonald

Seattle Times

Stéphane Brizé's "The Measure of a Man" feels so real, you're almost startled when it's over - it seems as if this French drama about a middle-aged husband and father facing unemployment should just go on, as life tends to do.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 21, 2016

Full Review

Paul Byrnes

Sydney Morning Herald

No question, it is a fine performance. Lindon has a minimalist style, a shaggy dog look, and a barely suppressed working-stiff rage that gives the film some grit.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 29, 2016

Full Review

Farah Cheded

A Good Movie To Watch

So many scenes and conversations here are palpably laden with the anxieties of real life, both economic and personal. And yet, for all the dehumanization and desperation clouding its edges, Measure of a Man isn’t a hopeless movie.

Nov 18, 2023

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

Presents us with an unassuming but surprisingly sharp moral quandary, a nagging question of honor that's hard to shake.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 5, 2019

Full Review

Ellena Zellhuber-McMillan

One Room With A View

A tough, melancholic watch with little to no payoff. But in that way it effectively communicates how it feels to be the main character.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 22, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

At the age of 51, Thierry starts a new job that soon brings him face to face with a moral dilemma.

Director: Stéphane Brizé
Producer: Eve François-Machuel
Screenwriter: Stéphane Brizé, Olivier Gorce
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Production Co: Nord-Ouest Films, Arte France Cinema
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 15, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 16, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $112.1K
Runtime: 1h 33m
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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