Full Time

Full Time (2021) is a French drama film directed by Éric Gravel and starring Laure Calamy. The film follows Julie, a single mother who works multiple jobs to make ends meet. When a national transit strike disrupts her daily routine, Julie is forced to make difficult choices about her work and family life. The film is a tightly-paced character study that offers a realistic and unflinching look at the challenges faced by working mothers. Julie is a sympathetic and relatable protagonist, and Calamy gives a tour-de-force performance. The film's supporting cast is also excellent, with standout performances from Anne Suarez and Olivia Côte. Gravel's direction is assured and confident. He uses long takes and handheld camerawork to create a sense of urgency and immediacy. The film's cinematography is also impressive, capturing the beauty of Paris while also highlighting the city's harsh realities. Full Time is a powerful and timely film that is sure to resonate with anyone who has ever struggled to balance work and family life. It is a must-see for fans of social realism and female-driven cinema. Here are some of the things that critics have said about the film: "A gripping and suspenseful film that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled." - The Guardian "A powerful and moving film that offers a rare glimpse into the lives of working mothers." - The New York Times "A must-see for anyone who has ever felt the pressure of juggling work and family." - Variety If you're looking for a film that will challenge you, move you, and stay with you long after you've seen it, then I highly recommend Full Time.

I can't pretend to relate to the protagonist's trials-- I've never been under that kind of pressure. The film makes you wonder what so-called equal rights has meant for many women. Nothing very good, I'm afraid. I also never understand why so many workers in France who don't work in the public sector are often sympathetic to the constant strikes -- especially those of railway workers who seem unusually truculent, overpaid, and underworked. I am also not sure if companies are quite as unsympathetic to their workers during these strikes as the movie makes them out to be. At any rate, the movie is appealing and definitely a pleasurable way to spend an hour and a half.

I've been waiting for this movie to become available to stream in the UK. An entirely relatable story that could be told many times anywhere. A divorced woman's Sisyphean struggle to work, take care of her children, deal with an errant ex-husband - all under circumstances completely out of her control. An opportunity to change things results in frantic efforts to change her life. The ending is an unexpected masterpiece. In the meantime there are people who do their best but the system is unforgiving. You are fixated rooting for this woman. I defy anyone to not take a few deep breaths at the end of this film.

There's not a single false note in this brilliantly edited film that portrays (with warmth but not phony sentimentality) the stresses associated with being a single parent trying to balance the demands of motherhood while earning a decent living. The acting is top caliber, the direction and cinematography similarly so, and the pulsating musical score reinforces and heightens the dramatic tension and manages to create quite a bit of suspense in what is essentially a family drama. This is film-making where everyone involved is operating at the height of his or her craft. Very gratifying! Check it out.

Éric Gravel's "Full Time" is a well-crafted film that follows a single mother, Julie (Laure Calamy), as she tries to make ends meet in a society that seems stacked against her. The movie has a fast-paced feel reminiscent of "Run Lola Run," while also offering a story that viewers can relate to on a personal level. Julie's job as the head chambermaid of a hotel is not ideal, and she's determined to land a better job at a marketing firm. However, with a citywide transit strike and her dependence on public transportation, she faces challenges in reaching her interview on time. The film's technical aspects, such as Mathilde Van de Moortel's editing and Irene Dresel's score, add to the tension and keep viewers on edge. Julie's determination to better herself is admirable, but the film does not shy away from showing her flaws. Although the movie lacks a strong statement about the strike and organized labor, it is an intelligent and engaging story about a familiar struggle. Gravel's film blends tension and humanism to create an impactful experience.

Life is hard , People had to struggle to take their life forward , This movie shows you this issue , When you see movie , you feel you are in the movie and you feel your life is so hard too , especially if you are a single mother , you can feel that some people actions are against you and you are helpless but GOD is with you (Romans 8-31 ) . The Director is Éric Gravel who has written and directed this French drama film , he has shown the hardness of Life wonderfully , at the end as Bible says in Revelation 3-8 and Revelation 3-7b ,, when you think all doors are closed opens GOD another door for you. The director/actresses have shown their own Life wonderfully.

This is remarkable film that will feel utterly familiar to any parent with young children and quite unrelatable to anyone else. Perhaps even more familiar if you're a single parent with a dead-end job struggling to stay off welfare and keep your kids. The backdrop is France, and specifically Paris, during a time of chaos as worker's strike. This rather echoes the current industrial action paralyzing the UK and forcing the working poor closer to the edge. If you can't work from home then this action is a dagger to the heart forcing you to run, run, run for dear life. In "Full Time" that's Julie's world in a nutshell. To the backdrop of an insistent soundtrack that raises the tension to a high pitch she's constantly rushing from one crisis to another. Stress, fear and worry are etched into her features as she tries to avoid letting anyone down as the world conspires against her. This is so utterly "not Hollywood" with no particular story arc, character development or artful dialog - instead it just "is" and we are voyeurs to a life slowly falling to pieces. Step by step Julie edges closer to the precipice. It's impossible to look away but deeply uncomfortable at the same time. I guess this means that "Full Time" won't appeal to every audience but my oh my you should make the effort to catch it while you can. If you're looking for more than just pure escapism this is a film that captures a miniature of life in compelling detail.

Pretty much this and a pursuit of happiness are the most relatable movie I've seen to a period in my life that though hard played a big roll in making me the man I am today. Living in any major city in American can be tough high rents, low wages, marital issues... It's really tough to be a single parent especially if you don't have grandparents or family support. Watching this women sprint to a train, hustle at work, rely on the blessings of dumb luck to get home and back to work is exactly the agst and anxiety that was my life for over a decade. This film is honest and tough to watch at moments. The director did a great job of making every moment feel tense and rushed..... Because that's what it feels like in that situation always. Here are two all the hardworking good parents building trampolines in the dark when they have to get up early..... Great movie.

In 1973, you had a French comedy called ELLE COURT ELLE COURT LA BANLIEUE, speaking of the hectic daily life of a suburban woman going to work every day, using public transportation, the kind of scheme in which millions of people could recognize themselves in. This one is not really a comedy, because it may be disturbing to watch, when you realize the hell this poor woman, mother of two, has to fight like a dog to survive, between a stressful job - she works in a Parisian palace, as a sort of supervisor - public transportation strike hell - so typical of France, the STRIKE KINGDOM in the world, financial problems, unbearable kids, problems to take care fo them when she works, a new job...You suffer for her, you feel dizzy for her, you may watch yourself in a mirror viewing this so realistic story. Maybe it's too much, I mean "too many" problems occur to this poor woman. It can't be possible that so many cataclysms happen on this casualty of modern world. I was surprised by the way she got rid off the big shipment from the van. Very ingenious, this is the kind of scene you may see in a crime film, about hoodlums pulling a heist. A jewel of a film, a mirror of the modern world, especially in France, my homeland, where a transportation bus line, train or subway may be stopped for hours just when a passenger feels sick, faints, or pukes. France where chaos, mess, jam everywhere is written in the Constitution. And I am in the best position to say this. France....

Laura Calamy runs for her life, in a sense, and for the live of her children. There is no monster or serial killer out to get her: the challenge of this divorced mother of two, who has dropped long ago out of her career to raise her offspring, and now has to eke out a living by working as a chambermaid, is to make ends meet. We are in Ken Loach territory here, but À plein temps couldn't be more different, and frankly it's heads and shoulder above most of Loach's works. For a start, it's shot like a thriller: it's fast paced, and dry. It doesn't hector or guilt-trip the spectator; it doesn't depict its protagonist like a saint either: Julie Roy is as flawed as most people are. She is smart, can even be crafty, but has no time for moral refinement: for her, it's sink or swim, and she is determined to not sink (her only moment of genuine doubt arrives in the last third of the movie, in the scene at the station. The camera lingers on her back in one of the rare long shots in the film, and yet somehow we can read her thoughts -- this is the work of an author who truly masters their craft). What put Julie in this situation is ultimately left to the spectator to decide. Has she at least partially brought it onto her by buying into a 50s-style suburban life myth? Is it society who has lost all empathy? Is there hope for her? I won't spoil the ending, but suffice to say, it's as powerful and dry and hard-hitting as the rest of the movie. À plein temps is giving me hope for French cinema. It's a great movie. Don't miss it.