“The Assistant” Has Us Quietly Question: What Would We Do?
Jane (Julia Garner) receives her dream job after graduating from Northwestern. She is an assistant to a top movie producer and this fits right in with her plan to produce films one day. The Assistant” (2020, 87 min.), written and directed by Kitty Green, explores how Jane unwittingly must deal with an unscrupulous movie mogul at the top of his game - and with all of the underlings (beneath this powerful bully) who enable his bad behavior in pursuit of their own career advancement.
As the newest assistant in this film production business, Jane is paying her dues, facing daily tedium: getting to the office first to open up, starting the coffee, arranging water bottles, cleaning the couch in the boss’s office and picking up a piece of woman’s jewelry while in there.
Jane remains stoic, her face a mask and her words minimal, but her mundane activities - photocopying, delivering scripts to other staffers, handling travel reservations, washing coffee mugs - allow her to mull over all the insinuations that her boss is a sexual predator. When a very young new assistant appears for work, Jane is told to accompany her to a fancy hotel and drop her off. This is the final straw. Jane heads over to the Human Resources Office.
For me, this is the most chilling scene of the film. Jane enters the office of Wilcock (Matthew MacFadyen), the HR director. At first, he appears sympathetic, with his silky smooth voice. “Whatever’s going on, you can tell me.” Hesitantly, Jane describes the signs of exploitation. Wilcock asks Jane what her long term goal is. “Movie producer.” He responds, “I can see you got what it takes. Why are you trying to throw it away with all this bullshit?” Then, Wilcock throws out an aside. “You’re not his type.”
The boss is amorphous. In fact, he is never seen, just heard, reprimanding Jane on the phone after Jane has to make excuses to his wife about his whereabouts, giving orders, disappearing after the new young assistant is sent to the hotel. It’s a clever treatment of the predatory boss. We see the results of his bad behavior without actually seeing him in action.
Green was originally inspired by the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement. Green explains:
When I began drafting this film, I saw it as a work of scripted nonfiction based on the specifics of the stories that women had told me," says Green. "Eventually the script began to evolve into a composite of the thousands of stories I'd heard, seen through the eyes of one woman. While the goals of the project remained the same, it took on a life of its own. I guess now I would define it as a fiction film that had an intensive documentary-style research process."
By focusing on simply one day of Jane’s work, the filmmaker allows us not only to see the way in which Jane is practically invisible to the boss and all of the other staffers. We also see how a powerless person is witness to a subtle toxic work environment, to which the others in this workplace, also on career ladders, are inured.
Green speaks to the choice of Julia Garner for the lead role:
"The first time I saw Julia, I was immediately struck by her presence," says the director. "We were looking for an actor with the right combination of strength and vulnerability. Julia brought depth, humanity and sensitivity to the role of Jane, and it was a privilege to work with her."
This quiet film does not shout out an easy answer for Jane. Instead, through her reflective face, which at first shows tedium and confusion, but then develops into looks of worry and concern, we feel her pain. At the end of the day, she has to face herself and her reactions. What will she do? What would you do?
Here is the film trailer: https://youtu.be/z9761kQCNWc. As more women, and some men, step forward with stories of careers thwarted - or compromised - perhaps one day this film will be an echo of distant times.
The movie opens in Albuquerque on Friday, February 21st at High Ridge Theater 8.
