This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Great Film overall

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

That's the line that Parker Posey's character, Margaret Burre (as in burr under the saddle?), asks Toni Collete's, Iris (one who watches and sees?). It comes at the halfway point in this densely layered, fully character driven, dark comedy-drama. She goes on, "...like you're not connected to anything or anyone?" And that is the main question, what are these people connected to?Hard to believe this film is 17 years old, I've watched it a dozen times over the years and, like a good novel, pick something up every time. I recall the first time I watched it, I had a strange sense of awkwardness and unease, much like how the shy Iris must feel a lot of the time. It has a low key humor about it, but it is really quite dark. Iris stumbles into a group friendship at work that finally makes her feel less awkward and belonging to something that matters. All four of the ladies have their issues, mostly in some form of denial of reality. To me, the healthiest one of the bunch is Parker Posey's character, Margaret. Posey does one of her best roles ever playing a spunky, irascible but ultimately hollow young woman who is floating through life, much to the disappointment of her parents. Margaret gets it, though. She knows the score, with the BS the company puts out and even the things her friends try to hide. She has a fearlessness about her. As all good things must end, the closeness and bonding come to an end when a strange, shy almost Iris-like character from another dimension comes into the firm, Cleo. Cleo is a disturbed woman who makes up for her shortcomings but shortchanging others, in this case by targeted stealing that makes it seem as if the four temps-Cleo is permanent-are the ones stealing. It works, the four are suspected and gradually put into more and more demeaning work situations. At one point, even Iris thinks that Margaret is the one stealing. The dramatic scene of Margaret being walked out is painful, especially when it's revealed for certain it's not her, but true to her fearlessness, she does not go out without a fight. Iris finds out that it's Cleo just like Margaret suspected from the start and seeks a restitution that also winds up transforming her.Just like the characters had a special moment in time that could never come again, so to did these actors. Collette was just a few years in America having been successful in her native Australia. Posey was making a name for herself as the quirky indie film girl. Kudrow was at the height of visibility with Friends and branching off into movies. Don't know much about Ubach. All in all, a great, quiet, strangely uneasy movie that should be seen more than once.

Jill Sprecher, the enormous talent behind "Clockwatchers", needs to be seen more often. We saw this witty comedy in its original debut and it was a pleasure to watch it again on IFC. Ms. Sprecher and her sister Karen wrote a delicious movie that is on the one level a satire about the way "temps" are used in an office, and it's at the same time, a character study about these four souls at the center of the movie.Each one of the young women in the film has a problem. They come together because they don't have a life on their own. Iris, Margaret, Paula and Jane, form a bond because they find safety in numbers. Iris is a clever girl whose shyness doesn't let her assert herself and is dragged along by the others that show stronger personalities. Margaret puts up a front, but deep down, she is just as vulnerable as the others. The most pathetic one is Paula, a woman who is pretending to be what she is not. Jane is waiting for the security of marriage to beat it out of being a temp.When the sneaky Cleo is hired as a permanent employee, the problems in the office are magnified. As things begin disappearing from the office, all eyes point to the four temps. That is the beginning of the end of the clique, as they knew it. Iris is the one that stays the longer and she is the one that discovers the mystery of the missing things in the office, but alas, it's too late, because at that time she leaves the temp job.Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow and Alana Ubach, are perfect as the four temps. Toni Collette has a better role where to shine as most of the story is seen through her eyes. Parker Posey is delightful as the free spirited Margaret. Lisa Kudrow also makes a good contribution with her pathetic Paula. Helen Firzgerald, who only has a few lines, cast a giant shadow as the creepy new employee that wants to make friends with Iris, only to be ignored.The Sprecher sisters created a film that feels real a situation one has seen is prevalent in the office setting.

This was clearly written by someone who has gone through the mind numbing, soul snatching experience of being a temp. It captures the self-worthlessness perfectly and also the stupidity of modern corporate America today.

CLOCKWATCHERS is mainly about friendship, and the various ambitions andsuspicions that can destroy it. In fact, it's one of the best moviesyou'll see on the subject of twenty-something female friends. It is notexactly skillfully made or written, but somehow it works anyway. Myrecollection of it was that it was bitingly funny, but when I watched ita second time, what hit me was the sadness. I hate the Voice Over, andLOVE Parker Posey (some of her best work). The rest of the cast is aces,too. (This is the movie that made me fall in love with Toni Col