The Assistant - 2019
*This review spoils one major scene.
There is a part of me that found The Assistant to be, if not dull, at least slow and plodding. It opted for mechanical and detail-oriented, or was content with pregnant pauses and deep facial expression over explosive high drama. But to be honest, that part of me is an idiot. For it's in this film's quiet, painstaking process that the greatest truths are first subtly suggested and then vehemently asserted to our consciences. It's that part of me that needed to learn critical truths on everything from the glass ceiling to #metoo industry abuses the most. So, do yourselves the favor - heed advice I did not at first follow. School is in session...sit up and listen.
I mean, I get the digs one could present regarding this picture. We spend most of the runtime literally watching Jane (played magnificently by Julia Garner) DO her job. She's the first to show up and start brewing the coffee and the last to leave. The film is an all-in-one-day affair, from sun up to sundown. It's just the regular old mundane daily life of a personal assistant, right? On the one hand, yes. Not all that much has changed by dusk. Yet, on the other, an awakening occurs which is SO monumental that nothing in Jane's life could ever be the same.
This is a takedown piece of the best kind. The film bludgeons Harvey Weinstein-like monsters from bow to stern without ever showing us his menacing visage. It's ok though, we hear his gruff voice berating Jane on several calls and witness his hubristic apoplexy in email correspondence as well. In a way, cloaking the villain in this way is an even more effective artistic choice, because we supply him with the characteristics of the monsters in our nightmares. Furthermore, perhaps men like these do not deserve to be humanized.
Whoever this man truly is, one thing is clear - He leaves traces of his debauchery everywhere. Jane wipes off smashed pills on his desk and gathers up hair ties from seat cushions in his office. He has a penchant for hiring young girls with little to no recommending experience or requisite job skills. Not only does he "bring them on," he also puts them up in five star hotels and pays them visits. This, his other male assistants seem to know all too well, but Jane (and by extension, us) never get more than a knowing glance and shrug from these silent observers.
It is one such hiring and lodging move which finally awakens Jane's conscience enough for her to walk a few offices over to HR. There, she waits briefly before sitting down with one of the heads of Human Resources. This, simply put, is one of the ten best scenes of the entire year. It is an absolute masterclass in writing and acting, in facial expressions, buried emotion, subtle acknowledgements, and in dawning realization. Oh yeah, and in repressed pain colliding with the film's muted tone like a Mack truck into a brick wall.
In the course of the conversation, the worker demonstrates his aplomb and facility in having these sorts of conversations. He listens well, reflects back what he's heard, and jots brief notes on a pad. He probes for deeper understanding only slightly quizzically and betrays none of his personal feelings about the entire encounter. Then things change. Cue the vaguely hinted gaslighting, the nudging of possibilities for advancement in the company, the clever inflation of Jane's own abilities, and at last the veiled threats. Buried under the weight of a voice being snuffed out and the eureka moment of the world she's entered, Jane can do little but stumble out of the office. As she passes, the man leaves her with one final comment, cementing all at once her fears and confirming the validity of her suspicions.
It's just absolutely breathtaking. I wanted ten more scenes like it. Just start passing out Oscar's and getting emotive, I said. But I was wrong. Because the end of the picture sends the perfect message. It leaves us with a pristine impression. While that scene was all one could hope for, it was also just entirely soul-crushing. So too must the weight of battling underneath these kinds of work conditions be. I applaud Kitty Green and folks like her for tellings these kinds of tales in the wake of such revelations. May more be heard and progress made towards the eradication of inequality and abuse. And Julia Garner, kudos to you and your grounded, measured, exquisitely authentic performance.
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