The Promotion: Movie Review
Steve Conrad's supermarket Comedy Delivers domestic Laughs
How many of us can vouch to having a dead end job at least once in our life? It is almost a fact that any one who has a job has at one point in their life worked one of the lowest rungs of the corporate ladder doing something menial for people who rarely care about you. It is a fact that everyone begins somewhere, and while some of us leave those careers to find bigger and better things, others stick with it and eventually aspire to escape it into something (hopefully) better.
Sound Familiar Enough?
With that thought in mind, Doug Stauber is one of those people who stuck along with it. Working in a chain supermarket called McDougals, he is the assistant manager for a crew of misfits that you would expect to see working in a place where they really could care less that they are there and express it in their quality of work. In the case of Doug, he is one of the few people who do care. In fact, aside from the higher ups of the corporate branch, even his better-off supervisor could care less. Doug is likely that very same man or woman you spoke with when you complained about the poor way you were treated at Wal-Mart, or some other huge department chain; a nice guy, who means well and honestly deserves more for all the damage control he gets piled on his lap.
But he makes do. He has a beautiful girlfriend who makes more than him with a boss who does amazing things, they share an apartment with walls thin enough to hear their next-door banjo playing neighbor, and he has hopes to get somewhere in his life and bring some happiness to his girlfriend and maybe get a chance to find his own.
That is why, when Doug finds out about a new McDougals opening in a nearby location, he knows that he must become the new head supervisor for that location and get that happiness that people above him have. All seems right, until Richard Welner comes in.
Richard is a bit of a different story: he’s the man who has had rough luck in his life, maybe walked on the wrong side of the tracks for a time, but is starting to make up for his mistakes and does a decent job at it. You might have seen Richard as the tattooed lady who takes care of supplies for the office, or the person in a white collar outfit doing slightly labor-intensive work that requires a good thinker with good initiative. He or she means well, and you can’t fault them for it even if they aren’t great at it.
A Comedy That Feels Real
Seann William Scott & John C. Reilly deserve credit for their talent in pulling off what may be one of the most domestic comedies this year. You can’t hate either of them for wanting to do better in their life, and even though they internalize a lot of their emotions, it’s hard not to understand why they express such resentment for each other when you know that getting the job means finding happiness for both of them. Their little passive aggressive stabs at each other are something you may have done yourself and may be embarrassed to admit.
The movie really works as a feel good comedy as well as one of the only comedies this reviewer has seen this year that did not involve events occurring simply for a cheap laugh or by blowing up spontaneously. In the end, you can not help but feel that they both deserve the promotion, and how the climax all comes down reminds us about how petty our greatest desires really can seem and how you can laugh about it when you look back at it. Steve Conrad hits all the right notes in the end and, as well-received the low-key movie Weather Man was, there is promise to his future projects if he keeps with this consistency.
You Might Like it For:
- “Realistic”/understated humor
- Feel-good comedy
- Nonsequitors
- Running gags
