Office Space [1999]

Director: Mike Judge
Writer: Mike Judge
Featuring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Gary Cole

Tagline: Work Sucks


All of you office-goers, especially my friends working in IT companies, this one's for you.
Oh, and well, even if you're not an office-goer, it doesn't really matter. You will still love the movie all the same.

This is a hilarious comedy made at the time of the dot com boom, and is based on the work lives of software professionals. 

"Office Space" is based on the "Milton" series of cartoon shorts created by Mike Judge that were aired on NBC and MTV in the early 1990s. But, while Milton and his boss play the central role in the cartoon series, they are supporting characters in the movie.

Although the movie was made around a decade back, the work-related frustrating situations depicted in the movie are still as relevant in our work-lives today -  the never-ending sea of cubicles, the morning traffic jam on the way to work, the late-nights and working weekends, the printer that always seems to get stuck, the monday blues, company downsizing, and the day-long staring at a computer screen.

 

The characters are so believable that you will find atleast one character fitting the description of someone you know at work. 

Peter is disillusioned and fed-up with his job at the software company Initech.
 His two friends and co-workers Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) are equally frustrated with their workplace. Michael is irritated of people always asking him if he has any relation with a popular singer who is his namesake, and whom Michael hates. And Samir is bugged by how people are never able to pronounce his surname right.
There is also a very frustrating printer in their office that keeps showing errors when they try to print something. They do finally get their revenge with the printer as shown in the picture below.

Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) is the waitress at the café next-door who is equally frustrated by her boss wanting her to wear dozens of flairs (badges) at work. Peter is too shy to ask her out, and also feels that he should try harder to work it out with his current control-freak girlfriend Anne (although he has the nagging feeling that Anne is cheating on him).

The four characters described above are treated as the main characters in the story, but the supporting characters of Milton and the boss Bill are no less. The characters of Milton and his boss Bill Lumbherg are totally fun to watch as they add their own unique tones to the already humourous script. Gary Cole does a nice and convincing work as the condescending boss Bill Lumbherg who keeps saying 'mmmm...yeah' in a drawling tone, and keeps calling in employees to work overtime. And Milton (Stephen Root) annoys you and fills you with pity at the same time with his almost incomprehensible mumblings of how everyone wants his stapler, and how he wants to set the building on fire.

When Peter ends up being indefinitely hypnotized by an occupational hypnotherapist (due to the hypnotherapist dying in the middle of the session), life takes a new turn for him. Suddenly, from being burdened with work-stress, he turns into a care-free dude and even gets promoted when the consultants hired for company downsizing are impressed by his frank nature.On the personal front too, things only get better for him. Leaving his controlling girlfriend, who was actually cheating on him, he goes after the girl (Joanna) he really likes.
But, when his friends Michael and Samir are fired, Peter starts devising a plan with them to upload a virus into the company system so that a fraction of money from each company transaction goes into their account.


Now keeping the humour and entertainment aside, the movie also wants us to learn something and that is summed up in Jennifer Aniston's line at the end "Peter, most people don't like their jobs. But you go out there and find something that makes you happy". Be sincere in your work, but never work too seriously. Because in the end, when you are lying on your deathbed, it won't matter if you worked overtime in office or not. What will matter will be what you did when you were not in office.

Go ahead and watch it. I'm sure you'll love it - more so if you work in the corporate world.. :)

Rating: 8/10