The tragedy of Jean-Claude Romand, the man who murdered his family when they discovered he'd been leading a double life, is tabloid legend in France. But rather than revisit the facts, Laurent Cantet's film is concerned with the mechanics of the charade and the curious sense of liberation that blinds its perpetrator to his inevitable entrapment.
As played by Aurlien Recoing, 'Vincent' is an amiable nobody, whose disillusion with reality evolves into a fantasy that enables him both to feel good about himself and bask in the esteem of his loved ones.
There are slick contrasts between the UN aid programme Vincent is supposedly supervising and his smuggling of sweatshop contraband. But the approach is too clinical to exert more than grim fascination.