I Really Hate My Job   Starring: Neve Campbell, Shirley Henderson, Alexandra Maria Lara, Anna Maxwell Martin and Oana Pellea Distributor: 3DD RRP: £19.99 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 22 September 2014

In a rundown restaurant in Soho, amidst the disinterested customers and the ever present rats, five women spend the night running the place, whilst at the same time they all dream of something better...

I Really Hate My Job (2007. 1 hr, 25 min, 54 sec) is an independent comedy film, written by Australian, writer, critic and editor, Jennifer Higgie. The film was directed by Oliver Parker (St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold [2009], Johnny English Reborn [2011]).

The film happens across a single evening as the five females try to run the restaurant. The movie hangs a number of interludes and intersections on the spine of the imminent arrival of the famous movie actor, but it’s not enough to drive the story, not that there is much of a story.

Each of the five women gets to air their hopes and dreams Alice (Shirley Henderson) hopes to be a writer and her mind wanders often. Slowly as the evening progresses the pressure of having to cook for all the customers starts to make Alice unravel. This state of affairs is not helped by Rita (Oana Pellea), who insists in talking about everything as if it were a philosophical debate.

Out in the restaurant Abi (Neve Campbell) worries about reaching thirty, whilst at the same time excitedly waiting for the arrival of her favourite actor and dreams that he might take her away from her life as a waitress. Also out on the floor is Suzie (Alexandra Maria Lara), who is attending art school. The four ladies are overseen, rather than managed by Madonna (Anna Maxwell Martin), whose only answer to a management problem is to hug.

The biggest problem with the film is that as it is a story about five women who find it difficult to connect with each other; they are each obsessed with their own existential crisis, so it is difficult for the audience to connect with the characters. The girls squabble through the evening as things become increasingly more chaotic. There are some good lines and funny scenes, but the whole thing doesn’t organically hang together, giving you the feeling you’re watching a series of interconnected, but somehow disparate events.

That said, the girls are all good actresses and do what they can with the script, the stand out moment has to be Abi standing naked in the middle of the restaurant, finally having imploded and demanding of the shocked clients what she is supposed to do with her life.

I found myself at times having to strain to hear the vocals. Whilst the soundtrack is clear, possibly a little too loud, the actresses voices occasionally dip low enough to be almost unheard. The film only has a 2.0 audio track, which may explain the problem with the sound, if it was not mixed well.

For extras, there is a full length commentary with the director and writer; it’s an informative and interesting affair, well worth listening to. There is also a Behind the Scenes feature (34 min, 08 sec) which is the usual combination of scenes from the film with the usual combination of cat and crew discussing the film. The disc is rounded off with a Gallery (2 min, 26 sec) self-running slide show and the theatrical trailer (1 min, 24 sec).

The film is quirky and if it had only held together better would have been a far superior film. It’s worth watching, if only once.

6

Charles Packer