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Time Out

Play trailer Poster for Time Out PG-13 Released Mar 29, 2002 2h 14m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
95% Tomatometer 86 Reviews 80% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
When Vincent (Aurélien Recoing) is fired from his job, he cannot bring himself to tell his wife (Karin Viard) and son. Rather than reveal the truth, he spins a web of lies to conceal his situation. With his father's help, he rents an apartment in nearby Geneva and claims he's been hired by the United Nations. He escalates his lies further when he creates an investment scheme and asks friends to contribute. His deception soon threatens to overwhelm his life and his family.
Time Out

What to Know

Critics Consensus

A haunting psychological drama, Time Out takes a penetrating look at the angst of the modern worker.

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Critics Reviews

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Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader Rated: 4/4 Oct 15, 2009 Full Review David Ansen Newsweek 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. Nov 1, 2007 Full Review Empire Magazine Rated: 3/5 Dec 30, 2006 Full Review Yasser Medina Cinefilia 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] Rated: 5/10 May 29, 2021 Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site 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. Feb 16, 2021 Full Review B. Ruby Rich The Nation 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. Feb 28, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member This film has a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and I have to agree. Much more horrific than any tale of monsters, vampires, zombies, serial killers, and all the rest is this tale of a guy fired from his job. He can't tell his family that he's out of work. Instead he drives around aimlessly, eventually coming up with a Ponzi scheme to dupe friends out of money. The interactions between the man and his wife had me on the edge of my seat. You want him to spill the beans to his wife but he can't. A meditation on middle-class ennui that is frightening to behold. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member I got this movie and kept putting off watching it. I would look at the cover and just not feel up to French, psychological, and introspective. I am so glad I did finally watch it. I'd read it was based on the true story of a man who pretended to be a doctor while unemployed. When his family found ...read morehim out, he killed them and tried to make it look like a fire. Being American, I was expecting violence and in-your-face manipulation and narcissism. But the film takes the premise of a man trapped in his own lies and increasingly over his head and leaves out the sensational gore. I've read people describe it as "creepy" many times, but I don't know that's the word I'd use. I felt sick for the main character and his family. Vincent and his wife are repressing so much, both afraid and on edge while pretending otherwise, but you feel their humanity and love for each other in quiet, tender moments. There is none of the explosiveness of the real-life story; it's more of an implosion. Time Out is slow-moving but with building tension. You have no idea what's going to happen and it for me it brought up many emotions not clearly definable. The last scene I found one of the most moving film moments, made all the more painful by how realistic it is, how "un-movie-like." Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member More than the plot, this movie works because it succeeds in creating an atmosphere of constantly being an outsider, left out from the rest of the normal world. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member A great French drama. Why do they have it listed as a documentary here? This thing isn't a damn documentary. Aurelien Recoing is fantastic as the man who seeks to hide the truth from his family as a matter of pride. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member The first hour of "Time Out" is the most involving portion of the film; after that, it settles into a pretty basic formula that's predictable yet still intriguing. Laurent Cantent's moody direction mixed with documentary-style camerawork and Aurelien Recoing's quiet, captivating central performance make watching the film a hauntingly effective experience. When it's all said and done, "Time Out" doesn't seem to have much of a point to it and the ending isn't as satisfying as I would have hoped for, but it's quite possibly one of the best dramatic pieces this side of the year 2000. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member The synopsis sounds very interesting. The movie...not exactly. Bunch of creepy people everywhere. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Time Out

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis When Vincent (Aurélien Recoing) is fired from his job, he cannot bring himself to tell his wife (Karin Viard) and son. Rather than reveal the truth, he spins a web of lies to conceal his situation. With his father's help, he rents an apartment in nearby Geneva and claims he's been hired by the United Nations. He escalates his lies further when he creates an investment scheme and asks friends to contribute. His deception soon threatens to overwhelm his life and his family.
Director
Laurent Cantet
Producer
Caroline Benjo
Screenwriter
Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet
Distributor
Seville Pictures
Rating
PG-13 (Sensuality)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 29, 2002, Original
Release Date (DVD)
Jan 14, 2003
Box Office (Gross USA)
$448.4K
Runtime
2h 14m
Sound Mix
Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)