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Genre: Psychological Thriller / Drama / Dark comedy

Cast
Bob Maconel: Christian Slater
Vanessa: Elisha Cuthbert
Gene Shelby: William H Macy
Paula: Sascha Knopf

Neo Art & Logic presents a movie written and directed by Frank A Cappello.

Running time: 95 minutes.

There are lots of stories people hear all the time about school shootouts, suicide gunners and murderous maniacs. And there’s always a question that looms in our minds – what the heck was that guy thinking? ‘He was a quiet man’ is a not-so-subtle answer to that question. And it’s not-so-pretty either.

Frank Cappello takes us on a dizzying journey into the criminally crazed mind of Bob Maconel (Christian Slater) who is a time-card punching, number processing slave of a typical corporate empire. His office is in a corner cubicle, close to a water cooler. He hates everyone because they disregard him. They treat him like he’s a nobody. Not that he’s more than a nobody, but it still doesn’t hurt to be nice, right? And so what does Bob do to counter his aggression? He brings a revolver to work everyday. With 6 bullets. And he has already chosen his victims.

Bob’s only friend in the world is his talking goldfish. Yes, talking goldfish. Don’t be alarmed because you know it’s all in Bob’s head. And there are humming birds outside his kitchen window that can’t quite come in because the window is always closed. They just sort of hover outside his house, giving him hope. But he is so insecure that he doesn’t even notice them anymore. He seems to find some solace in his porcelain Hawaiian girl and the toy detonator he carries around in his suitcase for lunchtime, when he pretends that he’s blowing up the entire office building. Oh, and there’s Vanessa (Elisha Cuthbert), the VP of Financial Gain of the company, who can light the room up with her smile.

The pressure at work is always high. But it would’ve been easier on Bob if his immediate boss didn’t kick him around so much. And one such day, when his boss pushes him around so much, he loses his calm and decides that enough was enough. But just as he’s putting bullets into his revolver, lo and behold, gunshots are heard and people can be seen hitting the floor. Bob pops out of his cubicle just in time to notice that it’s Ralph Coleman, another disgruntled employee.

Ralph immediately begins talking to Bob, confessing that he shot at Vanessa, mistaking her for the office tramp, Paula and that he was going to end her life, making it easier on her rather than leave her with just one bullet lodged in her back. Bob has an argument with Ralph about this which leads him to shoot Ralph with the gun he was filling just seconds before the shooting began. He runs towards Vanessa and stays by her side till the paramedics arrive, talking to her and keeping her focused.

Just as this incident is over, Bob becomes quite the talk of the town. Suddenly, he’s all over TV, people who never acknowledged him before suddenly begin talking to him; he reaches work and is greeted with smiles and applause, even from the people who he had planned to kill. The boss of the company, Gene Shelby (I never knew I could hate William H Macy) suddenly calls him and now Bob is suddenly offered a higher post… ‘VP of Creative Thinking’, a better car, a better status.

Aside from us, the only other person who is welcoming all this with disbelief is Bob himself. As though all this wasn’t awkward enough, Gene sends Bob to meet Vanessa, who is recovering in the hospital from the gunshot wound. As Bob reaches the hospital, he is told that she has been paralysed from the neck-down. And when he meets her, she spits at him and begins yelling and screaming, accusing him of destroying her life by letting her live.

Distraught from this experience, Bob escapes from the hospital to go home but somehow finds himself caught in a social circle that he never knew existed. Drunk, exhausted and throwing up, Bob is dropped home again. Here, with the help of his goldfish, he comes to terms with what is happening around him. The next time he meets Vanessa, she confesses that she was a little harsh the last time and she asks Bob for a favour – to help her end her life.

I could go on with this synopsis, but that’ll leave little for you to experience with the film. I doubt there’s any reason that anybody should miss it. There’s plenty of drama, amazing acting by all the actors, intense dialogues, some special never-seen-before scenes, and most of all, very tight editing and an intriguing, but satisfying background score. A very emotional experience, to say the least.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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