102AFalcon

CLOCKWATCHERS is a rare breed of film: it works as a comedy for a while, and then transitions into serious, basic drama without breaking a sweat. That's not easy to do at all.

The saddest story in this movie is...actually, there are several stories that are pretty damn depressing (in a good way, not in a causing viewers to need a lot of alcohol to get over seeing them). The relationship between the four temps never seemed like the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or anything like that, but it was still a shock to see how rapidly things deteriorated between them. And the brilliance of the kaleidoscope-like script by the Sprecher sisters is evident in how the responsibility for the loss of friendships changes with different viewings. Is it the fault of Margaret, who is too smart to play dumb but might be much more happy if she could learn to try? Of Iris, who at a crucial moment makes a judgment about Margaret, and then doesn't correct it? Or Paula, who is the first person to turn on Margaret and only seems interested in her own life? Or Jane, who is a shell of a person? Maybe it's Cleo the full-time worker, or Barbara the officer Rule Bitch, or---the situation that the company puts them all in, hoping to assign blame, not unlike what I was considering.

I related more strongly to this movie having been an office temp worker than I suspect I would have if I'd never taken on such work. The company I worked at was actually a great place, and my boss was a terrific guy who knew mine (and everyone else's) names. Yet the work was mostly repetitive typing and filing, there were times when I simply had nothing to do and ended up scrambling to fill the time, and the thought of doing a job like that for longer than the period I did it (eight weeks) would have been like a prison sentence embedded in free society. I decided to leave because I needed to find a full-time job, and was lucky to do so about a month after my last temp day. CLOCKWATCHERS gets the tone of temp life down pitch-perfectly; no matter how good being a temp can be, it's a lower caste in the office system, period.

And the last few scenes, where Iris pulls off a downright brilliant plan to help her friend at last, is a perfect capper here. 9/10.