Dir: Seth Gordon, USA, 2011, 98 mins
Cast: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx
Review by Maria Sell
Jennifer Aniston is your sexy boss and she cannot but cannot keep her hands off her employees. It probably sounds like a dream to many men but for soon to be happily married Dale (Charlie Day) it’s anything but a fairytale come true. All he wants is to be a husband but, alas, marital bliss doesn’t pay the bills, so Dale works as a hygienist in Dr. Julia Harris’s, (Aniston) dental practice. He must endure sexual harassment on a daily basis, since a drunken midnight toilet break in a deserted children’s playground has resulted in his name being on the sex offenders register (only in America), so his chance of finding alternative employment is slim. His two friends don’t fare any better: Nick (Jason Bateman) is dealing with a psychotic tyrant of a boss (an excellent Kevin Spacey) who takes immense pleasure in terrorising his staff, thus compensating for his unhappy marriage to his attractive yet (he suspects) unfaithful wife. And while Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) seems initially the only lucky one in the trio, he soon finds himself in the same situation when his perfect boss (Donald Sutherland) suddenly passes away and his drug-taking son (Colin Farrell) takes over the company. After a particularly bad day and a few beers in a bar they decide the only way out of their misery is to dispose of their respective bosses. The only problem is, none of them is a natural born killer.
The set up may be a little extreme, but the follow through is a winning mixture of Bateman’s trademark dry, straight-faced humour, Day’s excitable, teenagerish energy and Sudeikis’ well-meaning but naive approaches. Kurt is convinced that walking into a bar frequented by African Americans guarantees that they will find a suitable hit man. And they think they have in Dean ‘MF’ Jones (Jamie Foxx). Foxx’s performance is very amusing as the hardball gangster whose bark is worse than his bite. His natural comic timing is not surprising considering his background as a stand-up comedian.
The horrible bosses are despicable indeed, each in their own right. Given Spacey’s pedigree as a bad guy, he makes for a truly sinister sadist, who enjoys dominating his employees and seeing them suffer. Farrell is barely recognisable as the martial arts obsessed coke-fiend Bobby, who sees his company as little more than an ATM to fund his debauchery. But in contrast to Spacey’s character, he doesn’t have enough screen time to go beyond being one-dimensional. It’s a pleasant surprise to see Aniston add a string to her bow, playing a dominant nymphomaniac rather than the sweet girl next door. Yet, while Spacey’s character has the most depth, the bosses seem more like ciphers, there to just help establish the entertaining storyline.
The film benefits from great chemistry between all the characters, an entertaining story and good, punchy one liners, which makes a nice change from the default gross-out set pieces in most comedies nowadays. The question is, after watching this film how many horrible bosses out there will make sure their toothbrush is never left unattended?
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