Quatro Garotas... Uma Grande Confusão

For some reason I'd been resisting seeing this film until a friend thrust it into my hands and said, "C'mon, Toni Collette and Parker Posey, how can you go wrong?"

Maybe I was resisting because I didn't want to see my life up there on the screen. Currently working in a temp job (where I am typing this review), "Clockwatchers" is terrifyingly familiar. It's not a hilarious comedy, although it is quite funny. Certain moments threaten to veer into David Lynch-style self-conscious surrealism, but the director reigns these moments in, in the nick of time.

It's a film about small things happening in an enclosed space, and the friendships that grow between the most unlikely of people, due mostly to proximity. The mood of paranoia that emerges in the second half of the film is perfect - turning trivialities into monumental acts of anarchy and betrayal. The office becomes a sealed microcosm where the theft of a tiny plastic monkey becomes the end of the world.

Not everyone is going to understand this film - it's not "Office Space", which is more accessibly 'wacky'. You're not going to chuck it on with your mates and have a good laugh. It's much more sombre and serious and ultimately quite sad. And it's made me quit my job (so perhaps I should have given it 10 stars, just for that).

Inappropriately marketed as a comedy, Clockwatchers is actually a sad, almost disturbing slice-of-life concerning the empty lives of four office temps and the realistic and/or idealized ways they seek to escape their individual predicaments. This low-key, purposefully bland drama, with spare touches of humor from Margaret (Parker Posey), is steeped in realism, making it all the sadder.

Margaret, Paula, and Jane befriend Iris, the central character, at her new temp job. Margaret is loud-mouthed, foul-mouthed, and smart. Paula (Lisa Kudrow) is a young woman with fast-fading beauty, loose morals, and no hope for a future. Jane (Alanna Ubach) is biding her time waiting for her man to marry her and take her away from the temp world. And Iris (Toni Collette) is intelligent but timid. Unlike her new friends, she has the opportunity to score a real job at an interview that her father has lined up for her; however, low self-esteem, shyness, and a new-found friendship with the office girls contribute to her procrastination. Outward, upward mobility seems to scare her.

One day Iris stares blankly at her empty diary. Her temp job affects her so badly that she can find nothing to write about; she's been turned into a mindless zombie. During a moment of introspection, she thinks, `Sometimes it hits you, how quickly the present fades into the past. And you question everything around you. You wonder if anything you'd ever do would matter, or if you could just disappear without a trace.' Jill and Karen Sprecher's script is punctuated with perceptive, thought provoking lines, many of which comment on the individual's insignificance in society. Early in the film, Margaret comments on how `a person can just drift through life like they're not connected to anyone or anything.' Later, Iris admits that `even if a person wanted to break free, they could find out they've got nowhere else to go.'

Ultimately, the Sprechers' four-character quasi-study can be applied to everyone, every day. Some characters move on, thus positively changing their lives forever; others, whether out of preference, procrastination, or lack of education, stay put, forever locked in dead-end jobs. At the film's end, Iris realizes that improving her situation can come only from `never hiding, never sitting silently, and never just waiting -- and waiting -- and watching the world go by.' Clockwatchers may be a `small' film with a soft voice, but at least it has something to say.

I certainly expected a riot of a film, a very brass comedy in the vein on Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. Why? Well, if one looked at the poster and the summary. in reality, it's mostly a drama, and deeper than I had expected going into it. The four leads are very strong, and while she has the most screen time, Collette does not have the showiest role. That would be Parker Posey who is great at this type of role. Lisa Kudrow's character is also something we've seen from her before, but she's so fantastic at it. She's not as over-the-top as her character in Friends, but she gives it so much nuance and quiet humor, the type that'd be surprising if I already didn't know how great of an actress she was. This is definitely recommended.

So many people write that this movie is about temporary replacement workers. It is not. It is a warfield with the soldiers disguised as office workers. It's a look at humanity, it is a look at human trust, compassion, greed, and ambition. It is a look at the every thing that divides people, no matter how silly the things may seem. One may look at everything people do in this movie, and think "Why are these people getting so upset. Nothing here REALLY matters, but they pretend like it's the end of the world." Well, this is the only world they know. This is the world they are stuck in, and this is the only world they think they'll ever be a part of. The little things show just as much about character as the killings in a war. Some of the characters kind of realize there's more to life, and these are the ones we hope for. There is so much in this film that could be observed. Saying this is a movie about a bunch of office temps is like saying "American Beauty" is a movie about a man going through mid-life crisis. There is so much more in it. It is possible to learn as much about human nature in this as it there is in an epic war movie.

The cast is particularly superb. Parker Posey was born to play her role. There is no actress that can play the arrogant, hyper, rude yet somehow lovable female as Posey. Lisa Kudrow adds a thorough discomfort the movie is trying to achieve. In "Clockwatchers", she plays her stereotypical "comic bimbo" role in a way that doesn't seem funny. Her character is more sad. In a typical office comedy, her character would get the most laughs. Not here. She plays it in a way you can only feel sorry for her, and you can only hope she finds a better life. Somehow, you know that she can't.

This is certainly not a comfortable movie to sit through. You have to be more in the mood to see "Saving Private Ryan" than you would, say, "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion". It digs too deep, and most people wouldn't be in the mood to see that on a Friday night. If you look deep enough, however, and are patient enough, there are so many great gifts this movie can provide. My rating: 10/10.

The only thing that I can think when reading the negative comments left for this movie is that the people who wrote them have *clearly* never temped. As someone who spent four years of his life wasting away in other people's cubicles, I can tell you with complete authority that this movie gets every mind-numbing, insulting, and degrading aspect of the experience dead on. I suppose you should be thankful if you can't relate to what's going on in this film because it probably means you've never had to tip-toe into some middle manager's office on a Friday afternoon to get a signature on your time card.

As for those who think "Clockwatchers" is "dull" or "boring," it's called subtly. Look into it.