Reviews of the Past: Clockwatchers - The Name Says It All

From March 30, 2009:

Now that the Producers is finally over, and even though I'm transitioning into yet another show, I think my film consumption (and, therefore, my blog entries) will increase in quantity, at least over the next few weeks. Clockwatchers represents the second indie in the previously mentioned queued quartet and the second film I viewed that was directed and written by Jill Sprecher, though this is her first film. Again, when I queued my films up initially (and it will be awhile before I make it through that initial lineup), I did so in an almost stream of consciousness way and frequently based my selections on random interest. Since I had never heard of Sprecher prior to the point, I was interested in this film based on its subject matter. A workplace satire? Workplace humor is very relatable. I enjoy both Office series immensely, for example, and look forward to watching Office Space (don't judge) when I can. Plus, this film stars Toni Collette, Lisa Kudrow, and Parker Posey, amongst other appearances by familiar faces. It had some serious comedic potential, not to mention possible resonant storytelling. Unfortunately, the film was underdeveloped in many ways and, frankly, a wee bit boring, undermining itself and its potential in a yawn-inducing way.

Iris (Collette), in an effort to avoid taking up a job lined up for her by her father (Paul Dooley), decides to join a temp service, which assigns her to Global Credit. This company is the epitome of faceless and nameless corporations, and, apparently, there is palpable hostility between permanent employees and the temps. Fortunately, Iris is able to strike up something of a survival friendship with three other temps. Paula (Kudrow), the aspiring actress, insists that she will only temp until an audition pans out. Jane (Alanna Ubach) is biding time until--and passes the time prattling on about--her wedding and marriage to her wealthy fiance, who her friends rightfully suspect is cheating on her. Margaret (Posey) is ever the rebel, decrying the villification of temps and general office procedure, all the while not-so-secretly being the most desperate of the four to transition into a full-time position. Eventually, office supplies and personal belongings begin to disappear, and the evidence seems to implicate one of the temp workers, specifically Margaret. As the four decide whether or not to stick together or be every woman for herself, they must also decide whether or not it is worth it to continue as temps in a corporate fish tank or to move on with their lives, with or without their friends.

Clockwatchers can best be described as a mixed bag. On the one hand, there are enough visual jokes and hilarious character insertions to keep the satire in the forefront, relevant, and occasionally funny. The office supply Nazi, the strategically placed water cooler, and the office setup itself made the film instantly relatable to anyone who has ever worked in a stuffy office setting. Bob Balaban plays a particularly frantic executive with a tendency to make last-minute and semi-ridiculous requests of the temps while he looks to deflect examination of his own incompetence. Debra Jo Rupp (Kitty Foreman!) hilariously portrays an office manager who is as condescending as she is not subtle about the permanent versus temporary dynamic. The depiction of office doldrums was effective and chuckleworthy and certainly the highlight of the film.

On the other hand, the story development in this film by screenwriters Sprecher and her sister Karen was seriously lacking. None of the four main characters - particularly Iris - was given a decent treatment, either in backstory or present motivations. Therefore, the viewer was given no reason to laugh at something they might have said that was presumably funny or to care about them by the end of the film. The only member of the main quartet that was remotely interesting was Parker Posey's character, and that is because Parker Posey is such an underrated and brilliant comedic actress, she infused her performance as Margaret with a spark and a charisma that her (presumably written) lines of dialogue failed to offer. The viewer is directed to care the most about Iris, and while you know that she is mousy and uninterested in a potential position at a frozen food company, you are given no reason why her eventual actions at the end of the film should be of any concern to you. In fact, Iris' motivations are never fully explained nor, really, are Margaret's, at least as to why she started at Global Credit to begin with. Only Paula and Jane's B-characters have plausible motivations, but Kudrow channels her Phoebe character from Friends in this performance, and Jane's character would probably be classified as annoying by most people.

Perhaps the biggest irony of this film is the correlation between the title and the film's unintended effects on the viewer. The temps are "clockwatchers" because the doldrums of their day are so acute, they actually watch the minute and second hand of the office clock slowly but steadily wind their way toward 5:00 pm. Yet, watching a film about people who are bored at their thankless and meaningless jobs, who are given no interesting story development, and who are lost in a plot that could have been interesting if managed by more capable hands, turns out to be as boring as the four main characters' jobs seem to be. More than once, I watched the DVD counter as it elapsed toward the end of the film's projected running time, and I had to watch the film in two halves because I fell asleep at some point during my first viewing attempt. There simply wasn't enough laughter to keep me entertained and awake, while the ending, and, therefore, the whole film, felt anticlimactic and trite.

Clockwatchers could, thus, be chalked up to a decent idea and a modest effort. I see that some people on Spout loved this film, so, perhaps, they saw something I didn't, but, frankly, I was disappointed by the final result, when my interest was purely topical to start. After some consideration, I think Clockwatchers warrants a 5.5 on the ratings scale between utterly mediocre and cute but mediocre because, to its credit, it had some visual gaffes and Parker Posey to make it somewhat interesting, even if the product as a whole made me sleepy. It also fails the test for obvious and explained reasons. No one wants to be a clockwatcher while watching a film, after all, though as LeVar Burton said on Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it.