BEFORE: The most logical choice after "Thank You For Smoking" would be "Fast Food Nation" - but I'll get to that next week. Because today is 9/5, get it? Though my schedule these days is more like 10 to 6, or some days 11 to 6, but during Comic-Con it seems to be 8 to whenever...
THE PLOT: Three female employees of a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" find a way to turn the tables on him.
AFTER: This is an alleged "classic" of office politics - a precursor to comedies like "The Office" and "Office Space", in which you've got to believe that an incompetent blowhard somehow found a way to weasel into middle-management, despite being sexist, evil, and completely clueless. It's a farce, so you've got to start somewhere, I suppose...
You've also got to believe in the premise of the "Wacky Misunderstanding". People don't realize how prevalent these actually were in the 1970's, before we had e-mails and cell phones and text messaging to straighten everything out. Why, just look at your average 70's sitcom, say, "Three's Company" or "WKRP in Cincinnati" - it seemed like there must have been a Wacky Misunderstanding happening every week to people in that decade...
In this film, the three main characters are like women's lib archetypes - the divorced housewife entering the workforce for the first time, the buxom folksy secretary who has to fight off the boss's unwanted advances, and the widowed life-time corporate supervisor who can't advance due to the "glass ceiling". It's like a bizarro-universe corporate training film, co-sponsored by the National Organization for Women - "What To Do When Your Boss Takes Credit for Your Work" or "How To Work For Mister Grabby-Hands".
These three disgruntled employees get stoned one night and fantasize about killing or kidnapping their boss, and then, due to said Wacky Misunderstanding, are led to believe that they've actually poisoned their boss, and hijinks ensue. There's a weird leap in logic here - they thought they killed their boss, they found out he's OK, so they have to kidnap him and hold him hostage for 6 weeks? Yes, I know it's a farce, but it still has to progress logically - this is like 1, 2, 3...er, 7?
Of course, every corporate change that they make in his name, during his absence, turns out to be wildly successful - my friend Andy warned me against office films like "Yes Man", where every wacky corporate move somehow leads to greater profit and/or productivity. It's just not believable - flex-time and day-care aren't MEANT to be profitable, they're supposed to make it possible for new parents to return to the workforce. Day-care is a perk that companies pay for - and how exactly would it lead to a rise in productivity in just 6 weeks? You also have to believe that while one boss is an incompetent boob, his direct superior is a savvy genius who notices every tiny detail with regards to the office's bottom line.
Yet, at the same time, the boss was pulling some kind of embezzlement scheme, which the superiors never noticed, and the movie never gives us the details on. For that matter, I don't think they ever said what business this "Consolidated" company was even in. Not that it matters, since outside of making copies and doing some random typing, I never saw anyone doing anything that resembled "work".
Well, it all comes out in the wash, and the evil sexist boss gets promoted and transferred (since his office ran so much more efficiently without him), so I guess there's no reason to prosecute anyone for kidnapping, attempted murder, extortion, destruction of company property, illegal possession of a firearm, etc. etc.
Ridiculous. I don't think this film has aged well at all.
Starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin (last seen in "A Prairie Home Companion"), Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman (last seen in "Stuart Little").
RATING: 3 out of 10 cups of coffee
"...you've got to believe that an incompetent blowhard somehow found a way to weasel into middle-management, despite being sexist, evil, and completely clueless."
ReplyDeleteNot only do I believe it, I've had to sit outside its office, listen to its inane banter and smell its farts. I kid you not. Say what you will about the rest of the plot line, but that part is 100% believable to all the people who've had to deal with it first hand IRL. Lucky for you if you haven't.
I think the "ticking clock" in that movie was: Boss threatens to have the women arrested for attempted murder; Lily Tomlin character had been around long enough to know that boss is an embezzler; if they can keep him off the grid for X weeks, she can arrange for records proving his crime to be located and sent over, at which point they can blackmail him into forgetting about the kidnapping and the poisoning.
ReplyDeleteMovies of this era are unintentionally fascinating: they show what offices were like before personal computers and personal digital devices. If they made this movie today, it's be a two-minute short. Can Lily Tomlin download 28 megabytes worth of his financial records from the company server safely into her iPhone before the head of HR replies to his text-message?
If this doesn't already make you feel old, chew on this:
I put on "The Godfather" the other day. It was set in the late 1940's. If you made a movie today that was set in "old-timey time" as far back as "The Godfather" was when it was released...you'd have to go all the way back to the 80's.
Yeah, nostalgia is a tricky animal - I wrote a paper on it in film school where I posited that there tends to be a period of about 15-25 years between the time of film production and the time being portrayed - "The Godfather", "Animal House", etc.
ReplyDeleteSo, where is the Big 80's revival? And no, getting Molly Ringwald or Joey Lawrence to star in your sitcom doesn't count. Other than that ill-fated "80's Show" a few years back, I haven't seen many of today's films and shows set in that period. And if they do a remake like "Miami Vice" or "Dukes of Hazzard" they tend to re-set it in the present day -
I demand a full-on 80's movie revival, with pastel t-shirts, giant cell phones, and an important plot point delivered by fax machine. Come on, you know the soundtrack would be killer, with Thompson Twins, Culture Club, Rick Springfield and Human League, etc. What's the hold-up?
Maybe Hot Tub Time Machine will get the ball rolling on the 80's movie revival.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes! I'm totally watching that as soon as it hits premium cable. I'm squarely in that film's target audience!
ReplyDelete