LFF 2011 Diary, Day 3 - EARLY ONE MORNING

LFF 2011 Diary, Day 3: Early One Morning (Rating: ***) No doubt most of us have had just one of those days at work when you just can’t take it any more. The only difference between us and people like Paul is the drastic measures that they take when they’re in a rut. Early One Morning is film about a man on a mission, but couldn’t be futher away in style to the typical Hollywood action thriller. Instead, JeanMarc Moutout’s film is a meticulous exspose about the gradual process of losing control.

With a more or less one man performance

by Jean-Pierre Darroussin,the back story and setting of the recent banking crisis does not overburden the film’s personal touches. Though Early One Morning can be praised for attempting to draw in contemporary contexts to do with the global recession, the human drama at the heart of the story is what drives the film. In some respects Early One Morning is a companion piece to Moutout’s 2003 feature Work Hard, Play Hard, a similarly ‘behind the scenes’ study of the corporate word and the human beings that exist behind its cold exterior.

When a sudden and shocking murder rocks a docile office building, Paul Wertret (Darroussin) sits at his desk retracing the cause of what made him perform such a horrendous crime. Via a series of inter-cutting flashbacks, we see Paul was once someone with verve and passion; a life and soul of the party. An established and respected figure at the bak he works for, Paul is unpopular however with his new boss, frequently humilated by being demoted to lesser tasks and disrespected despite his years of experience and wealth of knowledge. Moutout also subtlely points to Paul and his wife’s charitable endeavours; photo albums depict their work with building schools in deprived areas and the presence of an adopted son also enhances Paul’s plight from a jovial and kindred spirit to a broken man.

Though more deliberate and contained than the crazed ‘victim’ vigilantism of Falling Down, played by Michael Douglas, Early One Morning is part revenge, part psychotic breakdown. Despite being fundamentally weighed down by dull exchanges about the banking crisis (economics and trading just aren’t cinematically interesting unless done by Oliver Stone), Darroussin is cold and warm, depressed and at times at peace, displaying the full range of emotions of a man who has lost the life he once had. Full of despair and tragedy, work won’t ever be the same again. JJ