Roedy Green I cannot tell you the plot of this movie. I am uncertain what happened, and if I told you a version, you would likely not believe me.Christian Slater plays Bob Maconel, a mousy, picked-on middle aged man. He hallucinates that his goldfish talk to him and bully him. He hallucinates/imagines killing his co-workers.You never know what is his imagination, his hallucination or twists of the screenwriters' mad fantasy.He deals with sadistic bullies for co-workers. One is female, who enjoys coming on to him, then suddenly crying out sexual harassment. I wanted a particularly sticky end for her, but was unsatisfied. Another, the man at the next desk, goes postal.One character is Venessa, a beautiful young woman paralysed from the neck down. She is a self-centred power tripper and tries to force Bob to help her commit suicide. We never know if she can be trusted or if she is just a scheming manipulator who uses Bob as a "spoon" to care for her.You see so many versions of events, you have to put on hold your decision of whether what you just saw was real.The problem with this movie is has no proper protagonist. Bob is just a colourless, mumbling dishrag. It is hard to care one way or the other what happens to him.I thought it odd that no one asked Bob why he had a loaded gun in his desk at the office, with which he shot the worker who went postal. Perhaps in the USA this is common. The only question was why he did not shoot sooner.Venessa explained the clasp on her bra to Bob, her caregiver, who had to bathe, bum wipe and spoon feed for the last few months. Surely by now he would already thoroughly understand female clothing.Much of the plot is Pythonesque. Bizarre things happen and everyone keeps a perfectly straight face and pretends they are ordinary.One amusing scene is Venessa ordering Bob around commanding him not to be "weak" not to let people push him around.The movie just seemed to meander after a shotgun start. I lost interest about half way through.

wezel2 I really enjoyed this funny little movie.This movie is about a sad, under-confident guy who is continuously run down and pushed around by the world, but at the same time despises that world, and eventually gets pushed to the limit.The performances were great - Christian Slater as the lonely, loner, loser who can't seem to make friends, or won't try. What made the performance real for me is that I have known guys like that.The office bully - sadly very real - have known and worked for idiots like this.Without going through the whole cast, these were all people that are real characters that one runs into all the time.I loved the music. It was brilliantly integrated with the scenes and perfect. Kudos to the creators for that touch.The cinematography went above and beyond, in my opinion. There were places where it reminded me of The Graduate. It succeeded in helping one get inside this guy's head, one could understand how he was feeling, what he might do as a result.There was only one point where I would have liked some clarification on plot and that was towards the end, but really, overall, I thought this movie was brilliant.

LeonLouisRicci A Dark Character Study that is a well Crafted, superbly Acted, smartly Directed, Offbeat, and somewhat Depressing Film. Christian Slater plays against Type and does so with intense, uncanny Verisimilitude. This should have been a second wind Career changer, but His Performance and the Movie were ignored, dismissed, and unrecognized.To this Day it collects dust on shelves everywhere and exists anonymously wherever Discs are Rented, Sold, or exchanged. It deserves so much more because although the Story maybe a bit familiar and its Twists not as Fresh as they used to be, it is still a gripping Psychological Study that is Timeless and Relevant. It goes about its Therapeutic Theme with Style and Insight. The Ending has taken the brunt of attacks from those who have seen it as ambiguous and unsatisfying, but it is not all that. In fact, it is a straightforward conclusion and rests on the inevitable Fate of the Failure of a Quiet Man and His frustrating existence in the cold Cubicle World of the Fortune Five Hundred that has no place for a Man who just wanted to be acknowledged for nothing more than being.

andymcneill75 I was totally taken back by how good a small, low budget movie like this really is. Christian Slater is unlike any role he has ever played as Bob McConnell and was just brilliant in this role. I think he was vastly overlooked in terms of honours and seriously could have merited an Oscar nomination at the very least for this role. He plays a sad, lonely, disgruntled office worker who harbors dark thoughts about his nasty co- workers and is going to go on a shooting spree, instead he ends up being called a hero for killing another worker who beats him to the punch and shoots up his office. A lot of the film deals with his relationship with a girl he fancies who ends up shot and paralysed( Elisha Cuthbert) and how he tries to be there for her and how he finds some happiness with her while never quite getting ahead with his life. This is a great little film which is quite sad, gentle, touching and very well written and directed by Frank Capello. Although there are a few cheap effects the movie has enough great ideas and shows some good skill in film-making.There was a lot of thought put in to this and the film pays off really well and the whole point of making films like this is that it doesn't matter how much it cost to make it's the idea that counts.What makes Christian Slater so good in this movie is that he plays Bob as a misunderstood soul and a person looked down on who is not a bad person but just confused and i thought he was phenomenal in this role, if only he stretched himself and played more parts like this. Elisha Cuthbert was also very good in this and William H. Macy added good support as the slimy boss.Capello should get some bigger jobs after this because i think he did a great job in storytelling and had some vision in making this under- rated gem.I'd put it in the same category as films like Secetary, One Hour Photo, Memento and others as a cult movie with a quite indie feel to it. Check this out!