Office Space (1999)

Such a fun movie. Not necessarily a 5-star movie, but really fun.

Peter (Ron Livingston) is in the middle of hypnotism therapy when his therapist has a heart attack and dies. So maybe that's why he's able to decide he's okay if he doesn't continue in his meaningless job.

It's funny, because although he says he's not going to go back to work, he actually does go back -- first to get an address book, but later, just to play Tetris. Meanwhile, after showing how much he doesn't care about his job to the Bobs, they decide to promote him to management. He's still going to work, even if he's not working. And that's nothing new, really, as he's already admitted going to work and not doing much when he was there before he decided not to go back to work, and not to get another job, and not to pay his bills.

By the end of the movie, he's working with his neighbor, Lawrence (Dietrich Bader), as a member of a construction crew. Apparently, he's okay going to work, as long as he feels like he's doing something useful. It doesn't have to be anything "important" in the grand scheme of things, but if he's doing real work and not getting scolded by eight bosses every morning, he seems to be content.

Likewise, Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) probably doesn't mind being a waitress. It's just a job, and jobs in and of themselves aren't what's being criticized, per se, in the movie. What's being criticized is the bullshit. The need to wear 15 pieces of "flair," for example, and then being "bullied" to wear more than 15 pieces (as required) so that you aren't seen as just doing the bare minimum.

It's funny to see Milton on the beach at the end. He's apparently taken the $300,000 in traveler's cheques. The idea at the end is that Milton's fire "hid" the fact that Peter and his friends stole the money from the company. That's a big plot hole, as that money is still stolen if Milton got his hands on it, and just because the fire burned down the company office building won't mean that the missing money won't be unnoticed. Then again, Milton had been laid off for five years, but Payroll never noticed, allowing Milton the chance to keep going to work after being laid off, receiving his paycheck after being "let go."

Rating: 4/5 stars

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