Thierry is 51, has a wife, a handicapped son and 20 months of unemployment behind him, with 9 months left on his social security benefits. After yet another impasse in finding a job even though he’s gotten retrained, he continues to fight to keep his head above water despite failure, humiliation and criticism from others. After many interviews, he finally finds work as a security guard in a supermarket. But the store management’s austere policies make him question the merciless morals of the modern working world …

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A sign of tormenting times, The Measure of a Man is reminiscent of the recent Deux jours, une nuit by the Dardenne brothers, in which Marion Cotillard tried to save her job with her co-workers’ help, and Discount by Louis-Julien Petit, in which a group of cashiers tried to change the system to help the less fortunate. Unfortunately, Stéphane Brizé’s movie has neither the strength nor the clarity of those two, floating in an opaque spot in between. The director gets lost in melodrama, overdraws the story, films his lead in close-ups without offering him any range and keeps himself at an almost embarrassing distance from his characters. Vincent Lindon managed to win the award for Best Actor at Cannes, confirming that the real value of The Measure of a Man is more political than cinematographical.