Human Resources

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Terrific French film about that most universal of subjects - work.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This superbly acted, expressively filmed story offers a rare blend of compelling drama, ethical awareness, and sheer human emotion.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

When it all comes to a head, what seems ordinary blossoms into something deeply complex and emotional.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Acompelling, cant free drama about clashing class systems and challenged family relationships that's all the more engrossing for its organic, near documentary style.

Variety David Rooney

A cogent human drama.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This sharp, convincing, and utterly contemporary political film calls to mind some of Ken Loach's work, full of passion as well as precision.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An extraordinarily absorbing neo-realistic tragedy.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

What makes this straightforward film so incredibly moving is that it keeps its scathing political commentary firmly rooted in everyday struggle.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Restrained, tough, and subtle enough to be as engrossing on the second viewing as it was on the first.

TV Guide Ken Fox

What could easily have been a dry, didactic film is granted unusual power by Cantet's cast, all of whom seem to innately understand the personal nature of Cantet's subject.

Film.com Sean Means

Human Resources resonates because it restores the humanity to that dehumanizing title phrase.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The movie's dramatic climax is a father-son confrontation of stunning cruelty. Although the movie stops short of outright tragedy, it is suffused with a grief born of rifts that may never be mended.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Concerned with fathers and sons, expectations and dreams, ideals and reality, this completely engrossing film gets more involving as it goes on.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Most tenderly, the film deciphers the true meaning of its corporate-speak title in Franck and his father's impassioned struggle to ensure each other's welfare.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The result is an undeniable and effective authenticity.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

A fresh, striking and rewarding piece of work.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

At its best when it's hovering around the muted dysfunction between a father and a son, who never understood each other to begin with.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A valuable, heartbreaking film about the way those resources are plugged into a system, drained of their usefulness and discarded.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A rare film about the class and educational divide that can happen even within families.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Offers highly effective performances by a cast of real-life employees without previous acting experience, who also collaborated on the intriguing screenplay.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Part of the problem may be the use of non-actors in most of the roles. They look like real people, and they are entirely believable, but none has any kind of star charisma.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Far from an amusing romp.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Human Resources, which gets my vote for most sarcastic title of the year, isn't a stand up and cheer kind of film.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A working-class drama that has its heart in the right place but undercuts itself by stacking the deck, letting its main character off too lightly and being overly impressed with its own profundity.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Works so well for the first 40 minutes or so, that when the bottom falls out of it, I felt more than disappointed. I felt betrayed.