Time Out
April 2003 Reviewed by: Wes Phillips Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Time Out is about as far from a typical American film as a movie can be. Instead of having a major plot point loom exactly every seven minutes, Time Out is essentially about nothing happening -- and slowly at that. Yet, once you have surrendered to its languorous pace, it is filled with internal tension of a most surprising sort.

Vincent (Aurélien Recoing) has lost his bureaucratic job with an unnamed UN agency, but cannot bring himself to confess that he has. Every morning he leaves home and spends time in his car or in the kind of glass-encased office tower he knows so well, where his knowledge of how those places work helps him become invisible.

Vincent's fantasy life seems to have a life of its own -- he begins to spend more time "on the road," sleeping in his car, eating in motorway cafes, and inventing more and more elaborate projects with which to be involved. This takes money, of course, and Vincent "allows" his friends and relatives to invest in his new undertaking.

Instead of succumbing to the guilt of his deception, Vincent actually seems appalled at how easy it all is. Then he meets a real con man who recognizes him as a kindred spirit.

Time Out is based on the real-life tale of a doctor who played just such a deception on his wife, then ended up murdering her and their children as it all unraveled. The film, being fiction, has to go for a less obvious ending, but it does raise horrifying questions, such as: Why do men become their jobs so completely that losing them is like losing their identities? The film also plays with our sense of right and wrong in intriguing ways that I won't disclose for fear of giving away too much of the plot.

The transfer to DVD is impressively natural and clear. The ultimate effect is very film-like and betrays none of the hyper-real video quickening that plagued early DVD transfers. Colors are rich and true. The soundtrack is nominally 5.1, but the film is all about the dialogue and the surrounds simply don't have much to do. The dialogue is audible, even comprehensible -- assuming your French is up to the task. In case it is not, there are easy-to-read electronic English subtitles.

I have no idea how to rate the film’s extras -- it has trailers for three other films, which seem interesting enough, I suppose -- but what it does not have is its own trailer, even though the slipcase seems to promise it. Perhaps it's hidden as an Easter Egg I couldn’t find, but that strikes me as downright odd.

Considering the message of the film, perhaps that's just Time Out's way of telling me I have too much time on my hands. 

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