Main Cast: Frank Whaley, Jennifer Connelly, Dermot Mulroney, John M. Jackson, Kieran Mulroney, Barry Corbin
Release Year: 1991
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
John Hughes strip-mines familiar terrain -- in this case his own past successes -- in this comedy that Hughes produced and scripted, directed by Bryan Gordon. Frank Whaley stars as Jim Dodge, a 21-year-old con-man who goes from job to job but likes to put on a facade of success. As Career Opportunities begins, he has just been fired from another job and has been hired by the local Target store manager (played by an un-credited John Candy) as the night cleanup boy. After the manager locks Jim in the store overnight, he goes on a binge -- playing with the skates, eating candy, watching television, and blasting the stereos. But then Jim discovers that he is not the only person in the store. Also there is rich girl Josie McClellan (Jennifer Connelly) who is spending the night in the store to get her father worried about her. Although Jim knew Josie in high school, when Josie wouldn't even give him the time of day, here they click like two castanets and they romp around the store aisles to a pounding rock score. But just at the moment when Jim and Josie plan to run away together with the $52,000 Josie holds in her purse, two low-rent comic thieves -- Nestor Pyle (Dermot Mulroney) and Gil Kinney (Kieran Mulroney) -- break into the store and Jim and Josie decide to stick it out, saving the store from the bumbling crooks. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
John Candy - C.D. Marsh (uncredited); Jenny O'Hara - Dotty Dodge; Noble Willingham - Roger Roy McClellan; Dan Albright - Dave Hockner; Royce D. Applegate; Reid Binion - Cal Dodge; Marc Clement - Otis; Nada Despotovich - Penny Dodge; Wilbur Fitzgerald - Bob Bosenbeck; William Forsythe - Custodian; Leigh French; Denise Galik - Lorraine; Heidi Meyer Gilbert - Girl in Car; Troy M. Gilbert - Boy in Car; Andy Greenway - Boy #2; Joanna Lipari; Coleby Lombardo; David McCharen; Danny Nelson - Gas Station Owner; Paige Pollack - Voiceover; Gary Schwartz; Jonathan Stark; Lou Walker - Farmer in Cafe; Benji Wilhoite - Stock Boy; Andrew Winton - Boy #1; David Arnott; RonReaco Lee - Boy #3; Pam Dixon
Credit
Guy Barnes - Art Director, Pam Dixon - Casting, Betsy Cox - Costume Designer, Bryan Gordon - Director, Glenn Farr - Editor, Peck Prior - Editor, Lora Lee Michel - Executive Producer, Thomas Newman - Composer (Music Score), G. Marq Roswell - Musical Direction/Supervision, E. Thomas Case - Makeup, Karen Koch - Production Designer, Paul Sylbert - Production Designer, James Allen - Production Designer, Donald M. McAlpine - Cinematographer, Frederic W. Brost - Production Manager, John Hughes - Producer, Hunt Lowry - Producer, Kathe Klopp - Set Designer, Troy M. Gilbert - Stunts, Walter Scott - Stunts, John Hughes - Screenwriter
Career Opportunities is an American romantic comedy film that was released in 1991. The film starred Frank Whaley and co-starred Jennifer Connelly in one of her first lead film roles. It was written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Bryan Gordon.
The film stars Whaley as Jim, a lazy slacker who is trying to get a well-paying job but instead ends up as a night janitor for Target. On his first shift at his new job, Jim is locked, alone, in the store by his boss. Connelly is Josie, the stereotypical "spoiled rich girl". The main action of the film begins when Josie, in a half-hearted runaway attempt, hides in Jim's store after hours. Discovered by the lonely janitor, Josie and Jim identify each other as kindred spirits and proceed to enjoy the freedom of being locked together in the store overnight. But things become complicated when two incompetent crooks, played by brothers Dermot Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney, break into the store and hold the two teenagers hostage until the tables are turned.
