ReelBob: ‘The Assistant’ ★★★½
By Bob Bloom
“The Assistant” is a soul-crushing experience; a movie that encapsulates the #MeToo era and shines a harsh spotlight on the sexism, abuses of power and toxic work environment — especially for women — in the film industry.
The movie takes place over one day, focusing on Jane (Julia Garner), a recently hired junior assistant to a powerful movie mogul.
Her boss, who we never see — but do hear — is a profane, demanding and exploitive bully, modeled on the disgraced Harvey Weinstein.
Jane, whose goal is to one day be a movie producer, is at the bottom rung of the entertainment ladder.
Before the sun even rises, she is the first one in the office. She makes coffee, cleans up her boss’s office and prints copies of scripts and other papers.
She restocks her boss’s refrigerator with water bottles and orders lunches for the assistants who are her superiors. Basically, she performs mundane and — sometimes — unpleasant tasks, such as fielding angry phone calls from the mogul’s wife — for which she is chewed out in expletives for not giving the correct responses to her queries or cleaning the stains from his office coach.
Writer-director Kitty Green uses a low-key approach, allowing the viewer to eavesdrop on what goes on behind closed doors in the mogul’s offices. Nothing explicit is detailed or shown; “The Assistant” is heavy on implication, allowing you to make your own observations.
In a sense, “The Assistant” is like an old-fashioned horror movie in which all the murder and mayhem occur off-screen, so it is left to our imaginations about what happens behind closed doors.
Green’s film is slow and deliberate, forcing us to experience the condescending manner in which Jane is treated. At times, she seems invisible; if she is recognized, people talk at her not to her.
It’s as if she’s a nonentity, unworthy of respect and regard because of her gender and lowly position in the company.
Jane continually keeps her head down; she dreads having any dealings with the mogul — not from fear of sexual advances, but because she sees him as an ogre.
Yet, she remains in the company because — after profanely scolding her — he reassures her that he sees talent in her and can help fulfill her dreams down the road.
It is an insidious, carrot-and-stick relationship that’s almost akin to mental abuse.
You cannot escape this unsettling feature, despite, at times, feeling as if you should — like Jane — simply flee the premises.
One of the most chilling sequences shows Jane going to Wilcox (Matthew MacFadyen), the executive who hired her. She tells him about a young woman just hired as another junior assistant, who has been put up at a fancy New York hotel where, supposedly, the mogul has gone.
Jane intimates what we all know is happening, but Wilcox, speaking softly, uses humiliation and intimidation to reverse the situation, coercing her into remaining silent.
“The Assistant” is an unpleasant movie, disturbing viewing that makes your heart race. It is a bit too circumspect, but I believe that is a deliberate choice by Green to allow us to reach our own conclusions.
Garner’s performance is spot-on. You feel her discomfort of simply being in the office, as well as her conflicted internal struggle about burying her head and ignoring it all so she can attain her dream career.
“The Assistant” is the first memorable movie of 2020. It’s shocking in the covert manner in which women are objectified and used, and in which the main response is merely whispers and snickering.
The film’s overall silence is thunderous — and that is its greatest power.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
THE ASSISTANT
3½ stars out of 4
(R), language