Office Space

When I hear the name Mike Judge, I usually think of such TV shows as Beavis & Butthead or King of the Hill. It was only in the last few years that I began to associate him with his feature film Office Space, which has since become a classic in its own right, as it speaks to office culture on levels too numerous to count.

Believe it or not, for the longest time, I didn't even know the movie existed! The first time I was even remotely exposed to Office Space was in 2001. A co-worker at the time had a little cutout of someone taped to her computer, and when I asked her who it was, she said it was "Milton, the guy who's always mumbling on Office Space." Then about a year and a half later, my girlfriend at the time showed me the movie—utterly shocked that I'd never seen it before! She rectified that situation by not only showing me the movie, but by buying it for me as a Christmas gift.

Since it's such a well-known movie now, it may be a moot point to cover the plot of Office Space, but I'm going to anyway. The story revolves largely around Peter Gibbons, a kind of cube-world everyman who's burned out at his job and is feeling more and more directionless each day. He described it once as arriving late, doing maybe 15 minutes of actual work, then completely spacing out for the rest of the day. (Sounds familiar.) His work friends Michael Bolton (who absolutely loathes his inevitable association with the singer) and Samir share his burnout, but aren't quite as depressed as Peter is. To help him ease through his misery, Peter's not-so-faithful girlfriend convinces him to see an "occupational hypno-therapist" with her, played by Whose Line Is It, Anyway? alum Mike McShane. Right in the middle of their first session, though, the therapist has a heart attack and dies right when he's putting Peter into a trance. So what does that mean for our gifted hero? It means he's now stuck in his trance, whereby he suddenly doesn't care a fig about his job—he doesn't care about anything, in fact!—and opts to stay at home and do nothing, absolutely nothing, on weekdays and weekends when he's supposed to go into work. This leads to some outright hilarious episodes between himself and his boss, as played by Gary Cole, and affects a trickle-down ripple on some of the other people at Initech (Peter's company).

And I won't lie, either—while a comedy, Office Space still points out many serious foibles faced by your average office worker. The first 10 minutes or so of the film . . . I swear, they're an amalgam of all that can happen in a single day to irritate the living hell out of someone. The stop-and-go rush-hour traffic, how cars move in every lane except yours, the schizing-out behind the wheel (God, I know what that's like!), the annoying voices of co-workers, copiers that do everything except what you want it to, the condescending bosses pointing out your every little mistake multiple times . . . but you just can't help but laugh! Why? Because it's so true, and because we've all been there. Though I've never made a restaurant run at 9:30 in the morning. (A Starbucks run, now that's another story!)

On some level, the scenes of Peter's pre-hypnosis days at Initech have to ring true for all of us. Gary Cole's turn as Bill Lumbergh is very memorable. He takes your average boss and makes him as slimy as can be, with just enough detached condescension to make him the boss you love to hate. And what can I say about Stephen Root's Milton that hasn't already been said—and praised? He completely steals the show as the guy who keeps getting dumped on at Initech! He makes you genuinely wonder how a guy like him was ever hired there in the first place, and when his final breakdown comes after continuously being relocated, being laid off without being told (he instead stopped receiving a paycheck), and having his favorite stapler taken by Lumbergh . . . what's so surprising—and hilarious—is that he actually follows through on his promises! (Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.) Thus, his final appearance at the beach becomes all the more precious.

Jennifer Aniston served as good eye-candy in the role of Peter's new girlfriend Joanna, the girl he finally dared to pick up after he gets locked in his trance—but in the final analysis, she seemed a little flat to me. Her best scene, though, is when she expresses her "flair" to her boss (played by Mike Judge, in a role slightly reminiscent of Mr. Van Driessen from Beavis & Butthead). But by contrast, Diedrich Bader as Peter's blue-collar neighbor is just priceless! In a way, though, they both symbolized differing aspects of working life. Joanna's heart clearly wasn't in her job, waitressing at Chotchkie's, where she's required to "express herself" by wearing all sort of buttons on her work outfit (dubbed as "flair"). She saw the self-righteousness of the flair, and chose to wear only 15 pieces not because it was the bare minimum, but because it was shallow to express herself with so much flair just to allure customers. She hit the nail right on the head, though, when she told Peter to go out and find what he wants, that most people don't like their jobs, but that they shouldn't have to work at jobs they hate. Lawrence, on the other hand (Diedrich Bader), he seemed to get by all right working in construction. It made him happy, so that was enough for him.

Having once worked for a company that downsized, the process of Initech restructuring and downsizing was a familiar one for me. Though at the company I was working for, we didn't bring in any consultants; rather, my company was hit by the telecom downturn in 2001, and went out of business the following year. But Mike Judge still succeeds in making something as nerve-jangling as downsizing funny! For example, the interviews with the two Bobs are priceless. Richard Riehle's paranoid "people skills" meltdown is downright hilarious, and I love the look on John McGinley's face when he hears, in the next interview, "Just call me Mike." From just that look, you can literally hear the tires screeching to a grinding halt!





The printer beatdown scene is almost legendary by now. I still can't believe the authenticity of this scene, with every movement so perfectly choreographed and executed! Honestly, I expect to see a scene like this in Goodfellas or Boyz N the Hood; the fact that it comes in Office Space makes it all the more memorable.



I almost hate to say this, but there are some elements to Office Space that make it look dated. Like outsourcing—I remember when that was the in-thing in the corporate culture . . . yet it was only 5 years ago. And when Peter tells Joanna that he updates software in preparation for Y2K, I still want to laugh. (An old college roommate of mine once rightly labeled it as "the world's most anticipated non-event.") And all the Apple computers??? Enough said. (It's scary how technology can make you feel old, isn't it?)

The only part of the film where I thought the story got weak was when Peter, Michael, and Samir tried their Superman III bit with the fractions-of-a-penny virus. I know it was integral to the plot, but it just seemed trite to me, almost like filler material. In the end, though, it doesn't matter, because Peter finally finds occupational happiness, and Michael and Samir are simply content to be working again. It may not be their dream jobs, but as Samir says, it's work. And whether or not you enjoy your job, and regardless of where you work, you're bound to enjoy Office Space. I give this a 9 out of 10, complete with an O-face!