Starring: Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Fred Armisen
Written & Directed by: Steve Conrad
When I was a child my dad used to come home from a long day’s work at the discount retail superstore he worked at and he would tell me the best stories about the customers and events of the day. I knew early on that dealing with the public was full of surprises and annoyances. That was true of the corporate culture of retail as well. This movie made me very reminiscent for those storytimes.
“The Promotion” is the story of Doug Stauber (Seann William Scott), an assistant store manager of a grocery store chain who is anxious to become the manager of the new store. Standing in his way is rival assistant manager Richard Wellner, who has just transferred from a sister chain of stores in Canada. Both Doug and Richard are extremely nice, milquetoast guys. However, they both need the promotion.
What I really liked about this movie is that normally in situations where two men are competing for anything; things usually escalate quickly and get silly even faster. This movie goes about this escalation in a fascinating and realistic way. An audience member could totally buy the actions of each person. Beyond the realism, I like the fact that some of the actions taken in the competition were quite mild, and yet the respective guys felt bad for doing those things. For me, this is a brilliant way to approach the competition. I have never really seen it done in a movie before, and I really loved how it unfolded. Doug and Richard are two nice guys and you can’t help but root for both of them.
The casting is well done as well including Doug’s sweet, supportive wife Jen (Jenna Fischer). Fred Armisen plays Scott, the manager, absolutely perfectly. His comic timing has always made great use of quiet patience, and for a film like this, it really pays off. Also good was Gil Bellows playing the regional big wig from the board deciding the fate of Doug and Richard. Oddly disappointing was Lily Taylor as Richard’s wife whose Scottish accent was so bad that if the movie were released in Scotland, the audience might think that it was most laughable part of this comedy. As for the main characters, Scott’s performance at times seemed like he wanted to make fun of his character Doug rather than portray him, but in the end, Doug still maintains his likeability. Reilly is already a master at making the milquetoast rootable and lovable and in this performance, he just adds another character to that file.
Now I certainly laughed throughout this movie and I find myself feeling rather warmly towards it, but it isn’t for all people. The script very restrained in that although this does have a lot of laughs, it is a very mild comedy. I found that most people in the theatre did not laugh at the same jokes, but everyone seemed to find something to laugh about. Now, that may mean that collectively there is enough humor to please a crowd, or it could mean that the comedy will miss the mark for a lot of people. Regardless of that, I really enjoyed this little gem of a film, and I suspect it will become a cult film in the coming years.
