Thierry Taugourdeau (Vincent Lindon) has been laid off from his factory job, and he has a wife and a disabled son to support.

But steady, stolid Thierry doesn’t turn to substance abuse or taking out his frustrations on his family. He gets a new job — one that he hates. He becomes a security guard at a big-box store, where his duties primarily consist of humiliating other struggling people who have committed petty theft.

French director Stéphane Brizé films in lingering takes, with Lindon in almost every shot, and the actor is wonderful, able to convey Thierry’s conflict even when his back is to the camera. Rather than ceaselessly making him a victim, this simple, moving film turns on whether Thierry can bear to work for the same forces that are holding him down.