Office Space (Widescreen Edition) (1999)

The humor of the film works on multiple levels, but for me so much of it is funny with a twist of the knife, for much of the humor hints at a much more serious fact: modern work is genuinely dreadful and alienating. Perhaps many office workers love their job, but I hate mine, and I assume that I am merely one of millions. No one in this film has a meaningful job. Even Lumbergh, though the boss, has an absurd position. Peter Gibbons is at least able to be honest about the ridiculousness of his plight during the incredibly funny sequence in which he is hypnotized.

The film is a collection of many, many wonderful moments. I started laughing from the second that Peter Gibbons gets trapped in the traffic jam and is passed by an old man on a walker, and didn't stop until the very end. The film is a parade of very funny bits, from Michael Bolton and his passion for gangsta rap to Joanna's boss urging her to wear more flair (played by director Mike Judge) to Peter's neighbor who would yell at him through the walls to Peter's bizarre fantasy in which Lumbergh is making love to Joanna holding a cup of coffee in one hand and her ankle in the other to virtually any conversation involving Lumbergh and Milton. Some of the humor is a bit too broad. For instance, although I defy anyone not to find Milton's sequences funny as heck, they don't fit in quite as neatly with the satire of the rest of the film. I wouldn't, however, want to trade them in for a tighter movie.

In a way, this movie has made my life easier to live. I suspected my job was absurd before seeing this film. Now I know it is. But somehow knowing the truth makes it easier to get through the day.

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I related so well to this movie's honest, astute, and technically correct observations of office culture in the 90's, that the brilliantly original bits of commedy were almost incidental to me (I must have annoyed the heck out of my wife with outbursts like "Oh my GOD, that's so TRUE!" every two minutes). I caught some of the more subtle humor in subsequent viewings.

I'll admit, the movie lost its hold on me about 2/3 in, when the main character (who had by this time become an icon to me with his new found "no fear of consequences" attitude) took a strange criminal direction, and his angst began to return. This seemed to break the consistancy. I wan't too thrilled with Jenifer Aniston's performance either, although I suppose that had more to do with her script. In any case, the second time I watched the move, none of this bothered me as much.

I've since purchased the DVD, and have worn this disk out playing it for friends. I'll never get tired of this movie... even the sound track makes me laugh. It's a wonder that it didn't get better reviews, although I guess one really would have had to have experienced office politics in the 90's to fully relate (I wonder when was the last time in the 90's that Ebert heard, "Don't forget to fill in your timesheets!")

Some reviewers gave it low ratings claiming that it was "lightweight"... okay, so it's no Citizen Kane, but it certainly doesn't claim to be either! Give it credit for what it is -- as a lighthearted observational commedy, it's brilliant. And that's not to say that it was a total no-brainer either... on an intelligence level, I'd rate it much higher than say... any movie ever made by the Fairley Brothers (and certainly much lower on the "obnoxious bathroom humor"-scale).

It's a pretty sad testiment to the intelligence of the average North American that movies like "Me, Myself, and Irene" brought in more money than Office Space. I hope Mike Judge doesn't let this stop him from creating another gem.

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