MegaSuperstar Review of Time Out of Mind

Time Out of Mind (2014)

Uncomfortable reality - a better world is possible

[6/10 · 31 May 2019]

Filmed as if a day in the life of a clochard. Coming and going. People passing by, not even noticing the invisible people who live off the welfare society although immerse in it. People who have lost home, posessions, documents, identity... some even their mind. These are the outcasts. Those who have nothing, who own nothing and who are banned from society. The poorest of the poor living in one of world's richest civilisation but out of it. Those who no one sees and no one cares for. The lumpen, the underclass. Disposessed. Like in Jacques Tati's Playtime, sound of the city and people talking is constantly heard although unintelligible, causing an uncomfortable feeling on viewer as Gere's character may feel about the rest of the world. The film puts the effort on portraying homeless' dayly life errant wandering, walking from place to place, with nowhere to go, but fails in portraying the man who was before, the motive that would make us viewers to really empathize with him: the reason why he lead to these situation and what lies behind it. Only brief flashes are hardly explained. The man who was behind the shadow he has become to. Richard Gere gives a convincent portrayal of a man who, unable to face reality, ends with mid lost mind due to alcohol abbuse and who until the very end is reluctant to consider himself a homeless. A film to think about..