Film review: 'Bartleby'

The cubicle life: Like Bartleby, you'll soon become bored

BY JOE O'CONNELL
Austin American-Statesman
(June 14, 2002): pE3. (341 words)

"I prefer not to" is the mantra of the title of character of "Bartleby," and potential viewers should answer in kind. Jonathan Parker set out to update Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener," which is a mainstay of college lit classes. Unfortunately, he chose weird over nuanced, and viewers are left to suffer the tiresome consequences.

Following Melville's lead, Parker tells the tale from the point of view of the bureaucratic boss (earnest David Paymer) of a records maintenance company who hires pasty-faced Bartleby to keep the meaningless paperwork machine humming. Unfortunately for the boss, Bartleby quickly loses interest in much more than staring blankly at air-conditioner vents and "prefers not to" either work or leave the premises.

Crispin Glover is an obvious choice for the lead and gives an obvious performance, essentially an inert version of Rubin Farr in "Rubin and Ed." Rounding out the cast are fellow drones: sex kitten Glenne Headly, obnoxious Joe Piscopo and inept slob Maury Chaykin, whose humorous antics almost bring life to the film.

The setting, a stylized almost-inaccessible monstrosity of an office building on a hill, gives early hope of a fun take on the numb horrors of cubicle life, but the film is ultimately a one-noter.

Worse, Parker chose to eliminate the nuanced ideas of Melville's story -- is Bartleby a hero for standing up to the man or a pitiful character whose decision to sit out life is a tragic waste? -- in favor of a didactic and thoroughly obvious message.

Work bites. This is news?

"Bartleby" had its world premiere in 2001 at Austin's South by Southwest Film Festival; coincidentally, a far superior take on the same idea, Mike Judge's "Office Space," also got its start here.

Rent the Austin-made film today and fire "Bartleby."