Product: Office Space (1999)
Rating: 5.0
Office Space goes where Dilbert fears to tread
Now, Office Space might look like a movie about this young guy whose whole viewpoint on cubicle hell is changed when his occupational hypnotherapist dies in the middle of a hypnosis session, leaving him with a wonderfully carefree attitude toward the job he despises - but it's not. The real star of this movie is Milton Waddams (Stephen Root), the mumbling, thoroughly mistreated oddball who is pushed beyond his limits after the boss, among other things, steals his stapler. He really loved that stapler, which is why he continued to use it after the company went with a completely different stapler manufacturer. When you're stuck in a cubicle for forty hours a week and forced to watch all sorts of Who Stole My Cheese nonsense taking place all around you, when you're always the odd man out when the boss' yearly birthday cake gets handed out, when you're forced to change cubicles over and over again for no good reason whatsoever, you become Milton. With no control over your life's direction, you cling to any little thing you can find in your three-walled domain - a favorite stapler, your chair (which you really should put your name on, if you want to make sure someone doesn't pull the old switcheroo on you), and the all-consuming importance of locks for your shelves (which the movie completely leaves out, for some reason). Your bosses make fun of you behind your back and think of ways to make your life even more miserable, and you start mumbling all the time. Yes, Milton truly represents those unfortunate enough to be trapped inside cubicle farms.However, since the movie does give young Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) and his buddies most of the screen time, I'll talk about them as well. That Pete's really got his head on straight as the movie begins; he has already learned that work is a form of torture that makes every day worse than the one before until you get old and die. His buddies at work are pretty spot-on as well, knowing that the hiring of a consultant means a labor reduction is imminent. Then Peter sees this hypnotherapist who gets him nice and relaxed, with all of his work-related worries washed away - and keels over dead, leaving Peter in a state that can only be described as carefree. He just stops going to work for awhile, but when he does pop in (just to pick up his address book), he goes ahead and talks to the two Bobs (the consultants). His straight-shooting, incredibly honest answers about how little he actually does at the company convince the Bobs that he is upper management material. While Peter's being promoted, though, his buddies Michael Bolton (David Herman) - no, he's not related to that dreadful singer - and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) are being laid off. That's when Peter comes up with a plan - well, actually, the whole idea was Michael's, but Peter talks him and Samir into actually doing it. They plant a virus-type routine, designed to skim off a fraction of a cent from every transaction, inside the computer system. The plan ends up working too well, though, putting Peter and the guys into quite a potential pickle.I think the film sort of loses its focus during the final half hour. Up until that point, it's a dead-on parody of cubicle life. You've got your fax machine designed to jam as often as possible, your boss who speaks to you as if you're intellectually challenged and never hears a word you say, a whole range of annoying co-workers, etc.. The whole "Didn't you get the memo?" routine captures the very essence of life in the cubicle jungle. A great supporting cast, including Jennifer Aniston as Joanna, a waitress who just says no to "flair," and Diedrich Bader as Peter's next-door-neighbor, really round out the film remarkably well. Even the genius behind the whole film, Mike Judge, joins the fun as Joanna's flair-obsessed manager. Office Space is just a tremendously funny movie that shines the mirror of hilarious truth on the ridiculous nature of far too many modern companies.