Anyone who's worked in an office environment will recognize the dread and anxiety of working under a high-strung new boss. What will surprise you is how the workers all adapt in one way or another. At first, out of fear of losing their lousy jobs in a down economy, but then, as their work might actually result in something positive, out of a sense of purpose, albeit consolatory.
The performances are uniformly excellent and Parker Posey is both brittle and formidable. Her interactions with Pete (Eric Mabius) are fraught with tension and unpredictability. She plays a character motivated by ambition and her ultimate actions come both as a surprise and completely within the realm of probability. And the big reveal also reveals the lengths to which Pete will go to land employment, even if it's at a workplace he has little passion for.
Most of the reviews I've read have misread the ending as losing its satirical edge. I'm assuming these reviewers think it ends happily. But it doesn't. Pete ends up doing exactly what he had said all throughout the movie he didn't want to do: give up on music and go to work in the retail corporate world. There is a very pointed message here. Pete is a sort of all-American everyman. Someone whose dreams were deferred indefinitely. The entire movie is about how people as bright and promising as Pete, and even his wife Sara, fool themselves into lives they never wanted. And about how they adapt to diminished expectations.
How's that for striking close to the bone?
The performances are uniformly excellent and Parker Posey is both brittle and formidable. Her interactions with Pete (Eric Mabius) are fraught with tension and unpredictability. She plays a character motivated by ambition and her ultimate actions come both as a surprise and completely within the realm of probability. And the big reveal also reveals the lengths to which Pete will go to land employment, even if it's at a workplace he has little passion for.
Most of the reviews I've read have misread the ending as losing its satirical edge. I'm assuming these reviewers think it ends happily. But it doesn't. Pete ends up doing exactly what he had said all throughout the movie he didn't want to do: give up on music and go to work in the retail corporate world. There is a very pointed message here. Pete is a sort of all-American everyman. Someone whose dreams were deferred indefinitely. The entire movie is about how people as bright and promising as Pete, and even his wife Sara, fool themselves into lives they never wanted. And about how they adapt to diminished expectations.
How's that for striking close to the bone?