A Good Little Soldier

It’s anchored by Alba Rohrwacher’s magnetic central performance as an under-pressure HR executive, and balances screw-tightening drama with a rich vein of comedy.

Carla’s genuine reactions are what make A Good Little Soldier so relatable because of the inherent code switching that occurs between the different realms most of us traverse.

The film is tense, realistic and compellingly performed — Alba Rohrwacher, who plays the lead, is as good as she’s ever been — but also a bit schematic and didactic, hammering home a familiar message about people crushed by the weight of shareholder value until there’s barely any life left in them.

Its portrait is alluring if also slight in its overall commentary.

Brizé’s refusal to show Carla in any other context outside of work gives the film a stale, claustrophobic quality, as if she’s permanently locked away at a distance.