In a world where gig employment reigns, ‘At Work’ offers a somber look at the life of a struggling writer navigating the complexities of modern work.
‘At Work’ Review: A Writer’s Struggle in Today’s Gig Economy
If At Work had been made 50 years ago, it would likely have been a bawdy sex comedy — Confessions of a Handyman. However, in today’s world, there is little fun to be found in the realm of no-strings employment. Strangely, Valérie Donzelli’s film is even more somber than that; there are more laughs in Ken Loach’s last three films on a similar subject. The film also presents a peculiar stance on modern employment ethics, portraying a man who could earn a decent living if he chose to, yet opts to linger in the margins, happily undercutting workers who lack the safety net he possesses.
Meet Paul Marquet
This man is Paul Marquet (Bastien Bouillon), and when we first encounter him, he is tearing down a wall. It’s a pivotal moment in his life; his partner (played by Donzelli herself) is leaving him to move to Montréal with their two nearly grown children. Her reasons for leaving are never fully explained, but it’s evidently tied to Paul’s recent decision to abandon a well-paid career as a freelance photographer to pursue writing, selling off expensive cameras to finance his new path.
Struggles of a Writer
Despite receiving fan mail, Paul’s writing career is far from promising, and as he approaches his third novel, he faces pressure from his long-suffering publishers at Gallimard. Unfortunately for Paul, time is running out; his new book is a thinly veiled roman à clef about his failed marriage, titled The Story of an End. His publisher, Alice (Virginie Ledoyen), tries to remain diplomatic about its bleak nature. “Don’t you read the news?” she asks, quietly exasperated. “Every ten minutes it’s the apocalypse.” She insists that people want escapism, and worse still, she finds it lacking in quality. “I’m waiting for your great novel,” she states, finally. “And this isn’t it?” he questions. (Spoiler: it is not.)
Living the Artist’s Life
At the age of 42, much to his family’s dismay, Paul embraces the life of an artist, living (presumably rent-free) in his aunt’s surprisingly spacious studio flat in a Paris suburb. But how can a struggling writer pay the bills? This dilemma arises when he visits an employment agency. “I’ll take anything,” he tells them, as long as he can write. “You want a job that leaves you spare time,” comes the sarcastic reply.
Frankly, there are many jobs that would allow writers the freedom to write, yet Paul avoids the obvious bar, club, and Uber shifts by signing up for a website called Jobber. Jobber functions as a community service platform with no apparent benefits for the worker; individuals post odd jobs, and the site’s clients bid for each gig at the lowest possible price. It’s a cutthroat environment, yet Paul seems to embrace it, leading him to join a group of immigrant workers performing home improvements in the film’s opening scene.
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Parental Judgment
To preempt our judgments, Donzelli introduces Paul’s father (Andre Marcon), who remains unnamed. Paul’s father embodies society’s righteous indignation, looking down on his son’s perceived laziness with the fervor of a Fox News enthusiast who sees no value in arts funding. Paul doesn’t defend himself on this point; his — and the film’s central thesis — is that literature simply is worthwhile. From this juncture, At Work embarks on a predictable trajectory, placing Paul on a journey that transforms his dreary experiences on the breadline into passages of pure alchemical gold.
A Dull Journey
However, this journey — as compelling as it may have sounded in Franck Courtès’ novel, on which the film is based — is incredibly dull and, at times, patronizing to those who are actually poor (a contradiction the script attempts to address but never quite resolves). Donzelli’s choices contribute significantly to this, overindulging her composer and overestimating her leading man’s onscreen charisma to such an extent that even when he kills and guts a deer, it’s about as exciting as his attempt to mow a woman’s lawn with garden shears. The French typically excel in portraying the dignity of labor, yet At Work is challenging to engage with, and it feels remarkably out of place in Competition at Venice when a smaller berth would have sufficed.
Title: At Work
Festival: Venice (Competition)
Director: Valérie Donzelli
Screenwriters: Valérie Donzelli and Gilles Marchand, based on the novel by Franck Courtès
Cast: Bastien Bouillon, André Marcon, Virginie Ledoyen
Sales Agent: Kinology
Running Time: 1 hr 32 mins
