Questions re: the last 2 scenes

I definately don't think he committed suicide (unless the last scene happened before what was shown in the movie).

As for saying "I'm not afraid"... I think he is still trapped in his own delusions... I don't think he is with his family anymore because they were trying to get him to face the truth and he ran away.

Just one person's interpretation.

When his wife was talking on the mobile phone and he was walking away i thought that was it and he was killing himself. But no, the next scene shows him in the interview room. One could of course argue that he could've tried to commit suicide and then his family helped him out and then he bounced back (a bit far fetched though).

I'm not sure if he did learn, because even when he was semi-confronted by his wife etc and he knew everyone knew and there was no point in the silly pretense he was still deluded. For instance by asking his son "what's changed?" as if he hadn't done anything wrong, even though had been lying to everyone, taking people's money and so forth. He didn't even seem to show remorse or plead for forgiveness; due to him still being in denial i guess, but did he learn? I think the phrase "I'm not afraid" is maybe implying yes he did learn and is mentally sound but as the OP says it is open to interpretation.

I think the key is in the last scene when the interviewer says, "you're father tells me you're quite ambitious". Vincent grows very uncomfortable and says, "well, that's what my father says". The father is trying to talk him up, but Vincent is compelled to reflexively and self-destructively deny his father's complimentary words. I think this scene indicates that Vincent's personality problems are intimately tied to his love/hate relationship with his father.

He is also alientated from his oldest son. My impression is that this son is much like the grandfather. They're both men (or soon to be men) of substance. When the son talks of how he chose to learn Judo, he says that the other martial arts are fashionable and flashy, while karate is too violent. He makes a prudent choice of substance over style, and that's the same impression one has of the prosperous grandfather. While Vincent, who probably felt that his father disapproved of him from an early age (thought him shallow perhaps), carries that pain and consequent self-loathing with him throughout his life. He creates an elaborate fantasy of his exclusive work with NGOs and yet even the basis of his fantasy is lacking in substance as his father says, in his view, that NGOs engage in "endless meetings" and accomplish little in the real word. Vincent flinches in pain at his words and lashes out at him.

It is only when Vincent finds a substitute "mirror-image" father-figure in Jean-Michel, who makes a living selling *conterfeit* goods, that he seems to find himself temporarily and decides to make amends to his friends. But then, seeing his son's disapproving eyes, so like his father's, and for the same reasons, sends him off the deep end again, and the last scene makes clear that he is still riding the rollercoaster pretense, self-deception and self-loathing.

Vincent was a partner at DR Consulting, a financial consulting firm. He didn't like his job at all (he says the only thing he liked about it was the driving), found no meaning in it, started missing appointments, "lost the company spirit," and so he was fired. His co-worker, Jeffery, who considered him a friend, found other companies willing to hire him, but Vincent kept telling him to leave him alone. Yet, Vincent doesn't tell his family any of this.

Then, close to the end of the movie, Vincent's wife, Muriel, calls Jeffery, Jeffery tells her what was going on, Muriel tells Vincent about it when he has JM the smuggler visit his home for dinner with his family. In the next scene, Vincent walks out on JM without telling him goodbye, then pays back his friend Nono (the married man that had the music studio in the room in his apartment), then visits Jeffery and slaps him in the face, then goes home to face his wife. Instead of just having to face his wife, he finds out that his wife told his father and his oldest son (if not all his children) about it, and they have this whole intervention set up. This is too much for Vincent, so he leaves in his car, and ignores their calls.

In the final scene, Vincent is at a job interview that his dad set up, an interview for a job that is apparently pretty much the same thing Vincent did as a partner at DR Consulting, the job he originally disliked in the first place. While the interviewer was telling him what the job would entail, of course Vincent has a look on his face similar to the look of a man being sentenced to prison.

But yes, when he said "I'm not afraid" -- was he being sincere or was he lying? We don't know.

If he was being sincere, then I'd say that would show that he realized that, although he hates the job, he realizes that it is necessary to keep things right with his wife and children, whom he loves -- and that he will find meaning in his job--not because of the job itself--but because it is necessary to keep things right with his family.

If he was lying, then I'd say that would show that he will soon lose interest in this new job, leading to subpar performance, and him getting fired again. If this is the case, then Vincent needs to start thinking about applying for a job that he would actually likes and finds meaningful--like using his expertise to help the UN with Africa's economy, or some other similar job with a non-profit organization that he finds meaningful, or some other unrelated job that he finds to be meaningful to him.