Palace Nova Cinemas
Season commences at Palace Nova 28 July 2022
Sneak Previews 22,23,24 July. Check Palace Nova for session times.
Review by Geoff Jenke
Julie (Laure Calamy) goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the countryside while keeping her job as head chambermaid in a Parisian luxury hotel. When she finally gets a job interview for a position she had long been hoping for, a national strike breaks out, paralysing the public transport system. The fragile balance that Julie has established is jeopardized. Julie then sets off on a frantic race against time, at the risk of threatening everything she has worked so hard for.
Full Time is an intense, fast paced movie. You thought your life was hard and busy? Try living Julie’s life. She never stops running at and juggling what life has thrown at her, an ex-who’s alimony payments are spasmodic, two children who have to get up before dawn so mum can commute to Paris and then throw in the Paris transport strikes, which don’t help as she lives outside of Paris.
As you live Julie’s fast paced life, you find yourself exhausted, even though the movie is only 88 minutes long. The movie works in circles, getting up, getting the kids organised, getting to work and then trying to get to a new job interview and finally trying to get home.
However, with only about three minutes of movie left, we suddenly find ourselves looking at three possible endings to the film. The “dark” ending, the “happy” ending or the “let the movie crawl to the finish” ending. Which route does it take? You will have to go see the movie to find out. It wasn’t the way I would have ended it, but then I am not a director. I just found the ending still gave rise to so many unanswered questions.
The music is dark and compliments the film perfectly. Director and Screenwriter Eric Gravel said of the music, “I knew from the writing stage that I wanted an electro soundtrack, whose repetitive beat would reflect the character’s inner throbbing, the tempo and the repetitiveness of her own life. It’s like her inner music, a succession of waves transporting us into her experience.”
Full Time is a pulse-pounding thriller, while offering commentary on the daily hustle that defines modern life. It is easy to admire Julie, although at the same time to ask some questions, like, what are you doing with your life?
Laure Calamy puts in an outstanding performance as Julie. Could you live her life or are you in fact living her life? Go see the movie and decided for yourself.
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