Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Office Space - Movie Review

Watched this movie after I read a post on the internet on the top 10 office movies to watch. It's a 1999 movie about an IT company in the US. They already had an Indian as a main character even then! Anyway its satirical and very true in its depiction of how dumb organised behavior can get especially in offices. And its light hearted and funny.

Three friends, Gibbons, Samir and  Michael Bolton, working in an IT company are struggling with the same problems everyone has in an office - bad bosses, low motivation, bad colleagues and bad everything. They are regular cribbers who crib about all else and do nothing. To top things the company has hired consultants to downsize and improve efficiency. All three are good cases to be sacked, more so Gibbons who does nothing and actually dreams of doing nothing. In a hypnotherapy session (sponsored by his girlfriend) gone off track due to. the sudden demise of the therapist mid-session, Gibbons finds a releasing high. He stops bothering about putting up a front, ignores his boss, does what he likes in office - an attitude that the consultants love. They promote him, the worst offender of the lot, and remove the other two - a classic everyday situation in offices. Anyway the three plan a getaway plan by stealing some fractions off the rounding offs from a software and well, it all ends up happily for all of them. Of course it ends even more happily for the moronic, semi-gone character who has been fired many years ago but who still comes to work and still gets a pay check and no one knows what he is constantly mumbling and complaining about - he gets all the money in the end. Is life fair? Yes - but only to those who are honest to dishonesty. Gibbons also gets Jennifer Aniston as a reward for his hypno high behavior.

Watching a 1999 movie was like watching something out of the far past. Their clothes, their hairstyles, the computers, the offices - man its not so long ago was it? Anyway, its a fine breezy comedy and a fun watch. Also a case for not giving a damn about anything - which is when you get everything on a platter. The principle of non-attachment one way or another. Why is being easy so hard? Or why is being hard so easy? Or why do we think so much?

2 comments:

Hmmm said...

Ah a piece about "office space", and yes it happens with me too...when I watch movies of 90s and I feel..."gosh that was not long ago!" Guess it's the digital correction/intermediate process post "Amelie" that makes us wonder about it. And I guess Indians/other nationals were always a part of Hollywood movies...a sign of Hollywood going international, but something (because of 'Hippie'r times probably) that went down in 60s-70s until James Bond brought it back with Vijay Amritraj and "Octopussy". Back on this film...personally I think "Office Space" is a terrific satire... I like the way Bolton says "I must have put the decimal point in the wrong place". It's always that isn't it - some seemingly simpler / specific "point" in the "wrong place" that leads to all sorts of mishaps and in some insane cases turn around of fortunes! Glad to read :)

Harimohan said...

Glad to see you back Hmmm. Yup its always the small details the trip you up.