FILM
REVIEW – SWIMMING WITH SHARKS.
Described on the International Movie Database (IMDB) as “a misfortunate case of a great film seen by a few "movie buffs.” This really is a brilliant under-rated film from 1994, with one of Kevin Spacey’s best performances ever as the ultimate in bosses from Hell.
Marketed as a dark comedy it’s really a tragic dark drama and the strongest look at ruthless soul destroying power-mongering greed since Wall Street.
Guy, played by Frank Whalley, leaves film school and walks right into a junior executive position with Buddy Ackerman, who immediately starts bullying and belittling him at every turn, often humiliating hi in front of other staff and putting him in no win situations. Asked to hold all Ackerman’s calls while Ackerman attends a meeting, Guy does as instructed, only to be chastised for keeping various important people on hold later, Had he patched them through he would have been equally open to abuse,
Despite the hostility, Guy is rising up the ladder and being given more responsibility by Ackerman, but he fails to see that he is getting more like his boss. He is too taken by his affair with Dawn, a scriptwriter who has slept her way to the top, and one of the few people willing to defend him in front of Ackerman. Dawn is played by Michelle Forbes (best remembered as Ensign Ro in Star Trek – The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine).
Suspecting Dawn of having an affair with Ackerman, Guy takes his boss hostage in his own house, brutally torturing him. Much of the film is in flashback taking place during the extremely tense siege. Only here does Spacey show his human side, desperate to live and admitting that he was bullied by his own bosses, but learned how to harden himself to do what it takes.
When Dawn walks in on the siege, clearly shocked, Guy seems intent to finally shoot him. Spacey makes an impassioned speech telling him that he has a choice now between love and power and asking him which he wants, really. We see the gun go off. As a body is taken away from the house, we realise Guy has shot Dawn.
At the studio offices, Guy bullies a new employee before the still facially scarred Spacey (the paper cuts to the face torture scene is extremely grim) summons him away. We see the men lock themselves away in Ackerman’s office, trapped in their own world of greed, power and spite…. The film ends with the closing of the door.
A film that definitely cries out for reappraisal.
Link - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114594/
Arthur Chappell
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