Product: Office Space (1999)
Rating: 3.0
Half a great movie
Based on the enthusiastic reviews from my co-workers, I had high expectations for this movie. And sure enough, the movie started off pretty well, highlighting the petty nonsense that makes office work wretched: daily traffic jams, cutesy co-workers, malfunctioning machines, smarmy bosses and pointless work. And many of the film's catch phrases have made it into office usage -- the infamous "TPS" report and "'Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays!"The film deals with Peter Gibbons, a young programmer who hates his big corporate job. At the instigation of his overbearing girlfriend, he attends a hypnosis session that ends prematurely, leaving him in a blissful state of nonchalance. At work the next day, Gibbons blithely ignores all rules of office and social etiquette. He arrives in casual clothing, plays Tetris all day, removes his cubical walls and asks a cute waitress out to lunch. His newfound lack of caring is perceived as freshness and candor by a couple of efficiency experts bent on reducing headcount.Yet at this point, halfway through the movie, "Office Space" lost its charm and gains lots of loosely-connected subplots. The hypnosis gimmick that drove the first half is suddenly and inexplicably dropped. The film morphs into comic romance between Gibbons and a waitress played by Jennifer Aniston. Gibbons and a couple of coworkers hatch a harebrained scam to revenge themselves on the company, and that threatens to land them all in the pokey. Aniston argues with her boss, a restaurant manager who expects his staff to be perpetually peppy, with lots of "flair" decorating their uniforms. All of this activity adds up to very little in the end.For its hits and magic moments, "Office Space" had plenty of misses. Richard Riehle's "Tom Smykowski" is a google-eyed, acne-scarred old timer whose panicked mumbling and emotional attachment to office supplies came across as kind of sad. I guess I've known too many real people like him who were marginalized and then forced out of corporations. The soundtrack consists (pointlessly) of quite foul rap music. A subplot about a malfunctioning office machine manages only to be confusing. The satire of peppy theme restaurants lacks punch. As an office worker myself, I was disappointed by the missed opportunities to lampoon office life. Only one character -- Gibbons' blue-collar neighbor Lawrence (Diedrich Bader) is memorable, consistent and likable."Office Space" has contributed more than its share of catch phrases and characters. But its inconsistent characterizations, sloppy plotting, unrelenting vulgarity, gratuitous female nudity and misfiring satire made it as annoying is it was funny. It's a 2-star movie that gains a star (I hate to say it) for pervasive cultural relevance. Watch it, even if only to understand the references your colleagues are making.