FilmNerd3

Psychological testing....or is it?

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 15, 2005 10:56 PM

If you're looking for a summation of the film read Task's review of this flick, but if you're just looking for an opinion, read on! I enjoyed the film, despite some obvious contradictions and confusions. It was a little tough to follow at first, but once the main action began, the opening sequence and its confusions were quickly forgotten. It is very much a film of the 'human lab rat' variety, wherein several applicants are placed in a room and forced to eliminate each other for various reasons of 'unsuitability'. Well done, confusions aside and thoroughly enjoyable.

Dance for your paycheque! Dance!

Posted by: Task, September 15, 2005 12:55 AM

Wednesday, September 14 9:00 PM PARAMOUNT 2

The movie I saw was pretty good, and this was the first ever viewing of it. The director himself hadn't seen it, he didn't even appear to know that they'd changed the title on him. It's referred to now as "The Method", the word Grönholm was likely removed so that the film appears less foreign and will therefore be more likely to be picked up by an American distributor. I expect there to be changes in the (eventual? supposed?) release version, and likely changes to make it even better.

Anyway, enough about my viewing of the movie, what about the movie itself?
It's set in 2010, where globalization has become the biggest thing (ha-ha, I'm punny) and everyone is protesting the IMF World Bank which has so much money (and therefore power) that it's dictating world policy and is focused on profit and working with the whole "suck the earth dry for every dollar we can" idea. This is merely the setting. Time is spent showing you these things, but it's just so you get a really good feel of the atmosphere of the world. And it works really well! One of the obvious results of this kind of world is that people who have high-level positions in companies would be a very go-for-the-throat type of people. Competitive, driven, everything we've got now but more so. So this company has narrowed the list of applicants down to 6 and is "interviewing" them all on the same day. In the same room. Without actually interviewing them. They're all in the same room and while filling out the same form for the third time they learn that "The Grönholm Method" is being used to select the person for the job. Of course, none of them have the slightest clue what that means, but they're all determined to be the last one standing, the winner of the new job. The movie keeps picking up the pace, developing plot and intrigue as these people compete among each other, at first following the instructions given to them by the computer, later on they're just making it up themselves.

Very much a psychological film, this movie will have you thinking from the minute it starts rolling till about an hour after you're done watching it. Exactly what's going on is, in the end, never really spelled out. The greatest power of the movie is that you're never completely sure of exactly what's going on, but you're given enough information to satisfy your curiosity and build your own ending in your head. Great movie!

Since it's adapted from a play, you don't really leave the main room. The whole movie is more about how these people interact than anything. When you get to "the shirt scene" prepare yourself for a hell of a good laugh. It's a good 5 minutes long and it's easily the best part of the movie.

I have one minor point to raise, but since it's a serious spoiler I'll hide it. You should really only read the stuff that follows if you've A) Already seen the movie, or W) Won't ever see it but want to know what I've written...

So the first test they're given is to figure out which one of them is a plant, a company psychologist. Whoever they decide is not a real applicant, that person is out. 5 minutes into the movie and already one character is gone! Later, a guy leaves but then comes back and reveals himself as the mole. He then directs the testing. A little later (after another elimination) he's talking to the remaining guy, and he says that he's really an applicant and just pretending to be the mole! Sudden twist! Then suddenly he's the company guy again and tells the guy (really, not 30 seconds later) that him and the girl are the final applicants and all he has to do is...

That's a pretty serious inconsistency. I'm sure it'll be edited somehow in the final version, but as it stands it makes it really difficult to accept the movie as a whole. If it weren't for that one gaffe, I'd probably give the movie a boot.