The Assistant

July 13, 2020 at 11:34 am | Posted in 2020 | Leave a comment
Tags: #MeToo, Drama, Julia Garner, Kitty Green, Matthew Macfadyen, Movie Review

◊ ◊ ◊ ½

This film, and the next one I will review, both sit in this weird space of films I did not enjoy but really respect. Both deal with women managing in a male dominated world. Here, Jane (who is never named in the film) struggles as the assistant of an unnamed and unseen Hollywood director or producer. We know nothing about him, other than that he is powerful (we see a White House invitation) and famous (a comment is made about him being constantly recognized). The rest is irrelevant because this story is trying to be as generic as possible. This is director Kitty Green’s first feature film. Before this, she has done three documentaries, all dealing with the exploitation of women and girls. I get the sense this is a passion project for her. She wants to tell the stories of women in Hollywood who are not sexually assaulted; that is the disturbing brilliance of this film. We get one long day in Jane’s life, and we watch everything she has to put up with. It’s not the clumsy, threatening groping of monsters (as she is told at one point, she isn’t his type). Rather, this film suggests what it would be like to live on the periphery of that behavior. To have to go to work everyday, knowing what her boss is doing to other women, and feeling powerless to address it. The best scene in the film comes at about the midpoint, when she is talking to the guy from HR, who is played brilliantly by Matthew Macfadyen (“Pride & Prejudice,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Death at a Funeral”). He manages to talk around the elephant in the room, daring her to say it out loud, and making her feel so little for bringing it up. At one point, he asks, “are you saying she’s too young to be an assistant?” What he is really asking is “are you saying the girl is underage,” but because we are not openly acknowledging a sexual relationship, even that question is coded. It’s a brilliant scene that shows how women are subtly coerced into silence. The entire film boxes Jane in. It has no score and little dialogue, leaving lots of uncomfortable silence. Also, the lighting and camera angles are chosen to reinforce of sense of her feeling trapped. The end result is smothering. This is not an easy movie to watch. It’s purpose is to show how abusive men also affect the women they don’t abuse. As such, virtually nothing happens in this average day; there are just repeated small slights that wear Jane down. She’s played brilliantly by Julia Garner, who many will recognize from the Netflix show “Ozark.” If you have seen her there, then you can appreciate how well she is acting here. In “Ozark,” she is brash, foul-mouthed and explosive. Here, she is small, insecure, and feels diminished by her job. Most of what is happening on screen is happening quietly on her face. This is a subtle performance; there is nothing showy here. If you aren’t paying attention, the film can seem boring. But it is actually fraught with tension. Jane does not want to be an actress, she wants to be a producer. She will likely never be assaulted by a Weinstein, but this film is assuring us that she is still a victim. Women like her have to make dozens of choices every day to ignore evil if they want to achieve their dreams. They are made tacitly complicit and then have to live the implications of their choices. When the film ends with her starting to go home, nothing has changed. There is no story arc, no climax, no denouement. There is nothing satisfying for the audience. Green wants us to feel that way. We are not seeing a complete story. We are seeing one tiny segment of one woman’s life. She could be anybody. She could be a thousand other women who are living through this same thing, one ordinary day at a time. So, the sense of unease remains. That is not easy for an audience to watch, and I can appreciate why many people would hate this film. I didn’t like it. I wouldn’t sit through it again. But, it’s a powerful piece of art, well made. And it’s an important one as well.