Review of The Assistant

In the early going, I knew right away this film would not appeal to a lot of viewers. It starts out slowly and never really revs up to any speed, however I did find the idea of the story compelling and provocative. As a newly hired assistant in a production office, Jane (Julia Garner) is not much more than a cog in an impersonal machine, handling menial assignments that come with the territory. There's almost the feeling that she keeps busy with tasks that she doesn't even have to do, like emptying the trash and babysitting the kids of her boss's nanny. Throughout there are hints that the 'boss', who's rarely if ever seen, is a serial womanizer who treats all of his employees with contempt. An attempt to level the playing field between herself and a brand new hire by visiting personnel results in Jane being subtly admonished to mind her own business if she wishes to remain employed.

So with all that, what I was expecting in the way of resolution was some breakthrough moment, perhaps an Ozark style Ruthie assault that would leave heads spinning and a jerk of a boss summarily put in his place. Instead, the story diffuses with a whimper, with only the recognition that Jane doesn't have the power to effect change in an abusively hostile workplace. That ending is bound to elicit it's share of 'Is it over with' moments far and wide, and quite frankly, I had to do a rewind on my DVD to see if I had missed something. The sad thing about Jane, she probably winds up going back to work the very next day.