Office Space

Office Space is a darkish comedy about bad jobs and downsizing from Mike Judge the creator of Beavis and Butthead. It's often genuinely funny, even if your guffaws are forced through cringes.

The film begins with a sequence with some computer programmers on the way to their office jobs in a traffic jam. A man on the footpath on a walking frame is making faster progress! Then we're treated to Peter's (Ron Livingstone's) frustrations at work. Stupid memos, a maddening telephone receptionist, a condescending boss (Gary Cole) and above all a boring job. All of this is done with a great deal of wit and flare!

Peter suspects his girlfriend of playing up on him but goes with her to a psychologist. Without giving away the gist of a particularly memorable scene, Peter has a life changing revelation at this meeting and decides that there are more important things to be concerned about in life than his boring job. He decides that life's too short to be miserable.

He ignores his boss, asks an attractive girl (Jennifer Anniston) out and goes fishing. He keeps on going to work though, when he feels like it.

Office Space is a comic rave against the dehumanisation of the workplace, and one which runs with a theme which is seen more often these days in popular entertainment. We shouldn't be surprised when the workers decide to rip off the company.

So much for the old, more honest ideas of citizenship! In a world where we have become consumers rather than citizens, it seems that the rules can become flexible. If the system is ripping you off, well!!!!

Mike Judge writes the Milton cartoon column as well as Beavis And Butthead. I have had only a fleeting contact with both of these creations but Stephen Root's Milton in Office Space is that most precious of comedic characters; hilarious as well as disturbing.

Poor Milton has been hiding in his increasingly cramped and isolated cubical at the company for decades. He's a shambling, mumbling, face blotched, bespectacled, middle aged, fearful man who still, if he's ever listened to, tries to stand up for himself. But he's a victim, a nerd, isolated, small minded and fearful. He's a recreation of one of Mike Judge's characters on Saturday Night Live.

Office Space does suffer from being essentially a comic book film. The characters although interesting are fairly two dimensional but still black humour predominates. Jennifer Anniston fans might find her role fairly slight and the last twenty minutes lightly treated, but Office Space will remain one of the better films of the year.