Themes: Women's Friendship, Boss from Hell, Fighting the System
Main Cast: Joshua Malina, Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Four women reflect on their lowly place in the corporate caste system in this dryly satiric comedy. Iris (Toni Collette) is a college graduate who hasn't decided what she wants to do with her life, except that she doesn't want the job her father has lined up for her at a frozen food company. While pretending to look for other work, she signs on with a temp agency, which sends her out to do office work for Global Credit, a particularly faceless corporation where the permanent employees go out of their way to avoid the temps. Iris is very much aware that she's at the bottom rung at Global, and she bonds with three other women in the temp pool. Paula (Lisa Kudrow) talks about her career as an actress and insists that she will only temp until one of her auditions pans out. Jane (Alanna Ubach) prattles on about her wealthy fiancé, although her friends are convinced that he's cheating on her. And Margaret (Parker Posey) is at once the rebel of the group, regarding her job and general office procedure with a barely disguised contempt, and the one who most desperately wants a "real" job with Global. When office supplies and various personal items start to disappear, all signs point to one of the temp workers (most likely Margaret), though none will own up to any wrongdoing. Clockwatchers was the directorial debut for filmmaker Jill Sprecher, who co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Karen Sprecher. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Why more films are not set in the office environment, where most human beings spend the bulk of their waking hours, is a cinematic puzzle. Seemingly serene and stifling on the surface, the carpeted walls and halls of the modern-day company are fraught with more romantic passion, political intrigue, and sheer comic possibility than is contained in the greatest works of Shakespeare. A handful of films are baffling Hollywood's marketing strategists in the late 20th century by bravely attempting to limn the cubicle set, ending up in the "underrated gem" file. Among them are Office Space (1999) and this little-seen treasure of a film, the writing and directing debut of Jill Sprecher (who penned the script with her sister Karen Sprecher). Perfectly capturing the spirit-murdering boredom of life at the bottom rung of the corporate food chain as well as the bizarre, niggling pettiness (fueled by raw, naked fear) of those higher up the ladder, Clockwatchers (1997) is sad, funny, and sharp as a box of requisitioned office tacks. Each of the four female leads is a standout, particularly independent film staple Parker Posey in the most complicated and least typified role. The real star of the Sprechers' film, however, is their script, clearly designed by a pair of siblings who have toiled in the wasteland of rolling chairs and coffee breaks and emerged to tell about it with sheer honesty. Maybe such "office films" aren't hits because they're just too painfully familiar, but art doesn't exist to reassure, and for a film as deceptively entertaining as it is, Clockwatchers asks some painful questions about the way people work at life and live at work. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Jeanne McCarthy - Casting, Karen Sprecher - Co-producer, Edi Giguere - Costume Designer, Eric Mofford - First Assistant Director, Jill Sprecher - Director, Stephen Mirrione - Editor, Guy Collins - Executive Producer, John Quested - Executive Producer, John Flock - Executive Producer, W. Mark McNair - Line Producer, Mader - Composer (Music Score), Carol Sue Baker - Musical Direction/Supervision, Pamela Marcotte - Production Designer, Jim Denault - Cinematographer, Gina Resnick - Producer, Greta Grigorian - Set Designer, Christopher M. Taylor - Sound/Sound Designer, Jill Sprecher - Screenwriter, Karen Sprecher - Screenwriter
Iris (Collette) is a very mousy and quiet young professional who doesn't want to rock the boat at the office where she temps. Margaret (Posey) is the polar opposite to Iris and a catalyst to help her change and speak up for herself. Paula (Kudrow) eagerly awaits post-work Happy Hours and the chance to hook up with the company's executives. And Jane (Ubach) is engaged to marry a jerk who is already cheating on her. Margaret hopes to become a permanent employee as an assistant to Mr. Lasky Bob Balaban but her dreams are thwarted when he suddenly dies.
A series of thefts start to occur in the office and suspicion falls on the temps, particularly Margaret. When Iris finds a plastic monkey that she thought was stolen inside Margaret's desk, she loses faith in her and believes she has been doing the stealing. Margaret plans a one-day strike from work and thinks her friends will join her in it, but they all come to work instead. The company's officious HR head fires Margaret. Afterwards, Iris and the other women's friendships come to an end; Iris reveals she only heard about Jane's wedding via a newspaper article and Paula goes to temp in another department. It is later revealed that another employee, a mute young woman from a rich household who became a permanent employee on her first day, was the culprit and that Margaret simply had an identical toy in her desk. Iris confronts the young woman when her diary (from which she does the film's narration) goes missing, and later receives a new diary and note of apology. Iris later is not hired for a job she really wanted, but ironically this helps motivate her to quit the temp field. But before she leaves the company, she is able to do Margaret a favor: one of the senior executives agrees to sign a letter of recommendation for Iris, but she tells him her name is Margaret and he has no idea that this isn't true. Iris then mails the letter to Margaret and bids the temporary worker goodbye.
