In 'At Work', Bouillon charms in a predictable look at a struggling novelist - review

Hannah Brown reviews the new French film 'At Work', directed by Valérie Donzelli and starring Bastien Bouillon as a struggling novelist. The film follows Paul, a former photographer who abandoned a successful career to write novels, only to face financial ruin and the gig economy. Brown finds the plot predictable but praises Bouillon's charming performance.

Hannah Brown reviews the new French film 'At Work', directed by Valérie Donzelli and starring Bastien Bouillon. The film follows Paul, a former photographer who abandoned a successful career to write novels. His books are critically acclaimed but don't sell; his editor is unhappy with his latest manuscript, a memoir about his failed marriage. His ex-wife has moved to Montreal with their children, and he survives on a few hundred euros a month in royalties. To make ends meet, he enters the gig economy, taking degrading jobs for 18-20 euros through a platform called Jobbers. Brown finds the plot predictable — "the world needed another book about a mean dad or a failed marriage" — but praises Bouillon's charming performance. She notes the film is part of a tradition of French literary movies and compares the French and American publishing worlds. The film opens in Israeli theaters on Thursday.