Lost in Space

Get ready for that case of the Mondays with Office Space

Comments (0) By David Wilson Thursday, Jan 2 2003

What kind of dork would go to a midnight screening of Office Space, a movie about working a mind-numbing job without a happy ending? Put simply, if you haven't been enslaved by bureaucracy and corporate culture yourself, you have no idea how accurate--and therefore funny--this movie actually is. One ongoing victim of corporate America went so far as to call it "a master stroke of genius that should be part of every new hire packet at every corporation in the world." Part of the problem with today's corporate culture is a complete lack of self-awareness, so adding Office Spaceto an orientation packet would probably be considered a sound investment by most companies. That sounds like a new "action item," one we'll have to "take offline," though.

Office Space shows one way to beat technology.

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The movie follows the everyday life of Peter Gibbons, a typical office drone. There's the grueling morning traffic (filmed on Dallas' own Interstate 635), the hike from the parking lot to the office and the inane office banter that millions of Americans must endure every day. But that's where the genius of this movie lies: In the first 20 minutes of the movie, nothing out of the ordinary happens, yet it's all incredibly funny. Convinced that every day is the worst day of his life, Peter visits a hypnotherapist and, after a terrible mishap, decides to do what he's always wanted to do, which is nothing. For once, Peter is on the right career track.

Anyone engrossed in the 9-to-5 existence of an office job can laugh and relate to Office Space, but they should see the movie with someone who wants to break into the exciting field of selling one's soul for the man. The movie takes on a whole new meaning when it hits close to home. Of course, one shouldn't say this too loudly. We wouldn't want to receive a "nastygram" from our co-workers accusing us of having "a case of the Mondays."