Horrible Bosses ****
We’ve all had one. They come in all shapes and sizes. Their mission, it seems, is to make our working lives a living nightmare. So it’s understandable that Michael Markowitz’s story, Horrible Bosses, brings a gleeful curiosity as to how other helpless souls deal with their own private workplace horror. Director Seth Gordon’s cast of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikisdemonstrate with effortless panache how to get the boss back in understated but pitch-perfect humour.
The plot is simple: three average, hard-working friends, Nick (Bateman), Dale (Day) and Kurt (Sudeikis) have three different nightmare bosses to contend with each day. Nick’s is a control-freak psycho called Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey). Dale’s is a man-eating sex pest called Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston). Finally, Kurt’s top boss dies leaving his tool of a son, Bobby (Colin Farrell), running matters – and he’s only concerned with squeezing every last drop of cash out of the family firm to fund his playboy lifestyle. The trio decide to take drastic measures to rid each other of their awful bosses once and for all.
The comedy has all the initial characteristics of an Apatow/Rogen romp like Pineapple Express, including an endearing central bromance, trouble with some white powder and oddball characters, and is paced in much the same way. However, Gordon has struck gold with his three leads, Bateman, Sudeikis and Day, who are a comic tour de force of understated, observational and more mature humour, and who keep the giggles coming in the more serious moments.
A lot of the gags, however, still cover old ground, but the story-defining buddy bond that seems so completely natural between the trio rekindles the same affections for more of the same humour, especially as the casting is so strong in this. In fact, rather that clashing personalities swamping the same scene, each character is carefully introduced, along with each devil boss, showing their woes and individual coping mechanisms, allowing us to empathise with each. Apart from the odd freak-out moment of Day as drug-induced Dale – reminiscent of screeching Bobcat Goldthwait’s Zed, the insanity comes not from the three trying to be such, but the escalation of each farcical situation.
Actually, it’s the bosses, played by Spacey, Aniston and Farrell that are far larger than life in comparison, making them appear even more neurotic, narcissistic and appalling, and emphasising their evil traits. Markowitz clearly defines his good and the bad guys in this, without showing any mitigating personal circumstances of those in charge and clouding any judgements. We hate all three from start to finish – even though one (Aniston) makes for an attractive distraction in the process.
Horrible Bosses delivers what it promises; a hugely satisfying sacrificial culling of those at the top, goading a panto-style witch hunt of all three bosses with relish and a guilty-free conscience. It’s a great balance of a sharply written script and all those involved, and makes for a seriously refreshing tonic after a hard week’s graft.
4/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
