Price Check

Parker Posey has been one of the queens of the indies for the past two decades, and she extends this with Michael Walker's "Price Check", in which she plays a no-nonsense woman who becomes boss of a company. However, it negatively affects the home life of one of the employees.

Posey's character reminded me of her character in "The House of Yes": you grow to love them, but you'd probably be afraid to approach them. Eric Mabius's character starts out nothing like his character on "Ugly Betty", but becomes more like him. In the end, this is a movie that you truly have to appreciate: with limited resources, they made an infinitely better movie than anything that Michael Bay's ever made (as can be expected with indies). I recommend it.

I wasn't really sure what I thought of this movie until the day after I saw it - which for me is one hallmark of a great film. This is a movie that appears to be one thing, a cynical office comedy, but ultimately turns out to be something completely different, a much deeper and satisfying look at contemporary American life.

When we first meet the Susan Felders, masterfully played by Parker Posey, we are tempted to see her as a larger than life and quite outrageous character. But by the end of the film, we get the clear realization that everything we've seen fits neatly within the prescribed limits of modern corporate norms.

The story is a kind of coming of age story for the protagonist Pete Cozy, competently played by Eric Mabius. It's interesting to note that Pete's struggle to find his place in the world during his 30's illuminates a kind of extended adolescence that has become a standard part of modern adult culture.

In many ways this movie reminds me of Up in the Air, which was one of my favorite films of 2009. It covers some of the same themes as that movie, but the characters are drawn with more subtlety here and the situations are more ordinary. Both films provide a commentary on modern American social structures with the corporation as the central gathering point. Whereas Up in the Air presented characters of mythical and almost melodramatic scope, here we see nitty-gritty scenes with very recognizable characters and motivations.

All in all, a very nice film.

I really liked the first hour of this movie--really liked it. I liked the energy of the new boss, played by Parker Posey, (even though she's hard to take in many ways), and the fact that she inspires the just-get-through-the-day-in-a-job-we-don't-care-about office mates to care about their work. She's a Steve Jobs in drive and in treatment of her underlings, and I appreciate that a lot (the good and the bad of that). The whole office becomes glad for what they're getting to accomplish during the workday, which enriches their lives. They get a bonus doubled. Especially in this regard, I enjoyed how Eric Mabius's character (think: Jim Halpert) goes from wasted potential to useful, competent, better-paid worker and better provider for his family. I loved Annie Parisse as his wife. She's a mom, yet (don't take offense, moms!) beautiful, intelligent, sexually engaged, loving, and supportive to her husband. She's a fantastic, caring wife. They have a great, committed relationship and are a good model of a great marriage. And, Pete (Eric Mabius) is, like a few characters verbalize, a good, honorable, truthful guy who's intelligent and competent, but truly humble about himself. He's very likable. I like how Parker Posey as boss over Pete includes Sara (Annie Parisse) in work things and befriends her, almost as a safeguard to let Sara know that even though Pete and she are working closely together and hard on work stuff that she acknowledges that Pete is Sara's husband and not her (Parker's) love interest in any sense. So much positive is going on. The reason I gave the movie a 5, rather than an 8, is because I was so disappointed in what happened in the storyline in the last 45 minutes, both in actions that are taken and in the undeveloped resolution to the mistakes that were made. I'm glad the movie wound up in the end where it did, but I was in mourning for about 35 minutes as a few characters "go off the rails," so to speak. "Uggghhh. Oh, no. Oh, no. Don't become that!" was my response during that time. For me, it was brutal. I always enjoy movies in which good or bad characters have a choice, admit to themselves what the right action is, and then do what's right, even at great personal sacrifice, shame, or loss to themselves . . . out of love and care for others. Perhaps this movie makes the case for its viewers to be better than its characters by showing the significantly muted gains they experience by the film's end.

You might've noticed that many of the negative reviews begin with something like "I'm a huge fan of Parker Posey, but I didn't like this movie." That can be expected because it's not a very typical role for Posey, and the film is nothing like the silly, fast-paced Christopher Guest comedies that earned her so many fans.

With the DVD cover pumping up our expectations with quips like "Posey is hilarious in this!" it's hard not to be disappointed when you realize this is more of a drama than a comedy. True, she brings to the table the same lovable goofiness, as neurotic as Tina Fey on crack, but where it breaks from her typical roles is that her character "Susan" in this film can be a thoroughly reprehensible person, and this complex dichotomy forces us to take her character more seriously than her typical lovable nerd roles. Imagine a very lovable, innocent, quirky personality like, say, Sheldon on Big Bang Theory. But now make that character do some pretty rotten things like, say, kicking cute puppies. The love/hate dichotomy might freak you out. It will either scare off the Posey fans or draw them in with curiosity as it did me.

If you remember the 80s sitcom Taxi and Danny Devito's odd character "Louie" the lovable scumbag who, if you were to meet in real life, wouldn't be worth the saliva to spit on him with, Posey gives us a similar feeling. Her character is the personification of everything that's wrong with corporate culture: sneaky, self-serving, without ethics, hypocritical and borderline depraved. Posey pulls it off brilliantly with her over-the-top quirkiness, and it may take you 30-45 minutes to figure out that she isn't really the "hero" of the story, she's more like a dark Mephisophelean force who is corrupting the good guy.

Midway, the film takes a dark turn and after that we don't get many funny gags (or perhaps we do, but they suddenly aren't meant to be funny) because the story becomes tense. This challenging shift may lose some viewers, but it's ultimately what makes this a memorable film. Disguised as a quirky comedy, the film reveals itself to be an intimate look at the underbelly of human nature.

There aren't many films I can compare this to, particularly not any blockbuster Hollywood productions. But if you've seen the Christina Ricci film "Pumpkin" (a satire about a snobby sorority chick who falls for a disabled kid), or the unknown gem "Great World of Sound" (a silly yet sobering flick about sleazy profiteers in the music industry), that'll give you an idea of what to expect in "Price Check". A more popular film I'm reminded of is "The Informant!" with Matt Damon playing a goofy character caught up in the dirty world of economic crimes (based on the true story of the Archer Daniels Midland price fixing scandal). None of these comedies will have you rolling with laughter, but perhaps better, they'll lead you on a whimsical tour of some heavy societal problems we face. One thing's for sure, if you like well-made, well-acted, oddball movies that defy categorization, "Price Check" is for you.

Let me begin by saying I am a HUGE Parker Posey fan. I absolutely love her in just about everything she's done. And it really is thanks to her excellent performance in this movie that I gave it as many stars as I did. Unfortunately, despite Parker's best amazing efforts, the movie is very boring. It's like it wants to take off and go somewhere....and Parker is workin it like nobody's business....but it just continually flatlines. Eric Mabius tries his best too (such a cutie) and a pretty good actor. But as the old saying goes, you just can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and this film is a squealing sow. If you want to enjoy Parker in her full glory, check out some of her other fun flicks, like Best in Show, House of Yes, or Adam and Steve. But do yourself a favor and leave this particular movie on the shelf.