I wouldn't have heard about this film if it wasn't for the latest edition of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so obviously I became interested in watching it. Basically, Jane (Julia Garner) has been working as a junior assistant at a film production company in New York City for five weeks. Jane arrives early in the morning and performs various menial administrative tasks. This includes endless paperwork, bringing coffees, letters, and paperwork to others, and answering phone call complaints and enquiries. She is constantly busy with long hours and demanding tasks, causing her incredible stress. One day, she receives a call from her mother (Heather MacRae) reminding her that she forgot to call her father (Mark Jacoby) for his birthday. As the day goes on, Jane becomes suspicious of the company boss, referred to only as "he" or "him", who has been making sexual advances to many younger women at the office, and a culture of sexual harassment has been facilitated at the company. Many of the male executives make snide comments about the boss's affairs while the female workers handle their own work and talk about possibly transferring to other departments. Whenever Jane does something wrong, according to her boss, he verbally abuses her over the phone while he two male junior assistant co-workers (Jon Orsini and Noah Robbins) watch in silence. Throughout the day, various people from the boss's personal life interact with Jane, including his wife (Stéphanye Dussud), his children's nanny, and a group of Chinese film producers. Besides her stressful job, Jane has ambitions to become an actress, and attends script readings and auditions, and has occasional encounters with famous actors (including a cameo from Patrick Wilson). In the afternoon, young, inexperienced Sienna (Kristine Froseth) arrives from Idaho, saying she has been offered a job as a junior assistant. Jane, concerned for Sienna's well-being, goes to the human resources department to file a report after dropping Sienna off at a five-star hotel being paid for by the company. Wilcock (Matthew Macfadyen), the head of HR, encourages Jane to share her concerns, but later changes his mind and turns a blind eye to the harassment claims, speaking down to her. He says to Jane that she is jealous and discloses that filing a formal complaint would destroy her career. As Jane leaves his office, he reminds her that she has nothing to worry about, as Jane is not the boss's "type". Jane is upset, then returning to her desk receives a call from her boss, who has been informed about the unfiled report. He demands Jane write an email apology addressed to him, which she does. He replies saying that he is especially hard on Jane because he knows how great she is. Toward the end of the day, Janes teaches Sienna how to use the office phone systems. When it gets dark, Jane prepares a microwave dinner for herself while other employees leave. The boss stays late in his office with a young actress. He calls Jane on the intercom and tells her to go home. Jane goes to a coffee shop across the street and calls her father as she eats a muffin. After she hangs up, she sees a silhouette in her boss's window appearing to have sex. Also starring Makenzie Leigh as Ruby, Dagmara Dominczyk as Ellen, and Tony Torn as Boss. Garner gives a good, subdued performance as the assistant of the title, and Macfadyen makes an impression (with an impressive American accent) as the HR head. You could argue that nothing really happens throughout the film, but that seems to be the point, it is what you don't see going on that is the unseen focus. In the wake of the sentencing of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and the "Me Too" movement, confronting Hollywood's long-ignored problems of sexual harassment, the script cleverly covers what goes on behind closed doors with monotonous email apologies, disingenuous phone calls and secretarial chores, making a quietly powerful fictionalised version of what we know now, an odd but interesting drama. Good!
Review of The Assistant
