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 In Cinemas Thursday [M]
Director: Oliver Parker
Runtime: 89 mins
Meant to represent a single night in a supposedly second rate restaurant, this film revolves around four waitresses and a dish washer who are allegedly going through the worst night of their life.
Alice (Shirley Henderson) is aspiring writer, who has just been rejected by her publisher for being too French. Abi (Neve Campbell) is an actress who is turning 30, and the only part she can get is in Arthouse Porn. Suzie (Alexandra Maria Lara) is in love with a 19 year-old fatty, and the Dishwasher (Oana Pellea) is some sort of revolutionary. Madonna (Anna Maxwell Martin) the manager has just broken up with her girlfriend, and is having trouble dealing with all the overbearing personalities of her staff.
There is also a paper-thin plot concerning the arrival of the actor Danny Huston, who performs a musical dance number at the climax of the film even worse than the one Justin Timberlake performs in Southland Tales.
Within the first 30 seconds of this movie, you know you’re in the hands of a terrible director. Oliver Parker (St Trinians, The Importance Of Being Earnest) makes some incredibly poor choices in this film. For instance, every time Suzie takes a photo on her digital camera, we are treated to a badly photoshopped image that looks like it was delivered on PowerPoint. Editing is also self-conscious, and noticeably trying to overcompensate for the slow pace of the film.
The actors employed are usually not bad, yet Parker still manages to squeeze uncomfortable performances out of them. This isn’t helped by the caricatured script by by Australian novelist Jennifer Higgie. Her characters all speak like they just came out of art school with a philosophy major, moving from one boring self-analytical conversation to the next. There are lines of dialogue in this movie that are so embarrassing – particularly from the character of Suzie – it makes George Lucas look like a genius by comparison. "Do you think oysters ever get aggressive?" I shit you not. Combine the fact that it is set in single location, you already have one of the most tedious cinematic experiences of this year.
It may be titled, I Really Hate My Job, but in actual fact, their jobs aren’t really that bad, the customers aren’t mean, and they just stand around talking to each other the whole time. First World Problems.
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ELWOOD LEE
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