"Office Space" is one of those movies that wasn't exactly appreciated like it should've been upon its release in 1999. In the 12 years since its release it has grown, developing a cult-following of dedicated fans who empathise with the characters and understand what the movie was meant to achieve.
"Office Space" is an extremely clever and well-executed satire of Corporate America. It looks at business situations and models, from middle-management to cubicle-confined workers who rely on their weekly paychecks to survive. The movie opens brilliantly where we are introduced to the characters we love in situations that pretty much everyone who has worked in an office environment, "9-to-5" type job has experienced. Stuck in the grind of traffic, where the cars literally have come to a complete standstill. Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) drives through traffic, going along with the slow grind of the rest of the world. He is stuck in a lane that doesn't move at all, where he looks to the sidewalk and sees an emfeebled old man with a walker going faster then him. He looks to his left and sees that the lane is starting to open up, the cars are moving swiftly. So he joins the lane, only for it to come to a halt, and funny enough the lane he has just left is now moving.
This sets up Peter's situation and the rest of the film perfectly in the sense that, no matter what one is doing and what environment one is in, there always seems to be a better, more attractive option nearby. The trick is, how do we get there?
Peter works for Initech, where his job is to update bank software for the "2000 switch" (remember the Y2K phenomena?). His best friends are Samir (Ajay Naidoo) and Michael (David Herman), software engineers who, like Peter, feel their souls being crushed by the Corporate world. Peter is plagued by his annoying boss Bill Lumburg (Gary Cole), who seems to purposefully insense Peter with his constant requests regarding mission statements of TPS reports. The basic plot is that after Peter seeks help from a psychotherapist, he makes a "revelation" that changes him, where he decides to "rebel" against the establishment...taking Michael and Samir with him.
The other characters in Peter's life include Milton, the self-obsessed, excluded individual (brilliantly played by Stephen Root) whose obsessions with his weekly paycheck and a red-stapler adds to the comic touch of teh film. He is a character that can't be heard and is ignored - haven't we all felt like that? Peter lives next-door to Lawrence (Deidrich Bader), a hill-billy type character reminiscent of Seinfeld's Kramer.
I won't give away too much of the plot here as it would spoil the authenticity of the film. But what makes this film so good is not so much the plot, but the simplistic yet very human characters that we can all easily relate and root for. They aren't "Hollywood" macho-men stars, but just simple, ordinary guys who are making a living. The film also has appearances by Richard Riehle, John C.McGinley, and Jennifer Aniston as Peter's love interest. There is also a brilliant cameo performance by an inanimate office object who provides one of the greatest comic scenes of all-time, but I'll let you watch the film to find out for yourself.
"Office Space" is the film that lets us escape into a fantasy where we can let our not-so-wild dreams fill us with amusement and joy. The production design of the film, with the grey-gloomy colours, confined spaces and cubicles sets the tone for the action to take place. Director and Writer Mike Judge has given us a modern-day comic classic, that I'm sure will be cherished and discovered by many frustrated individuals for many years to come.
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