Waiting (2005)

Workplace comedies have long been an established genre unto themselves, from Mike Judge’s seminal Office Space even going back to Broadcast News or (you might argue) Tootsie. More recently I enjoyed the more dramatic and quirky Waitress, though what stands out amongst all of these is an authenticity that makes them feel genuine, even when they are obviously pushing for laughs. Waiting is not only a workplace comedy, but a ‘day in the life of’ film as well, which is often a separate gene itself (Spike Lee’s 25^th Hour for example), by combining the two, and keeping the comedy and drama relatively low-key the film succeeds in painting a realistic, if not particularly endearing, portrait of life working for a small chain restaurant, as well as dealing with that period in everyone’s life when they have to decide what it is they really want to do with themselves.

.

Justin Long has often impressed in the periphery of other film, he has a laid back charm and everyman quality that makes him a likeable presence. With Waiting (and last years Going the Distance) he makes the transition to lead role effortlessly. Here he plays Dean, a smart but unmotivated twenty-something who since leaving school has found himself stuck working at his local Shenaniganz restaurant, where he has seen his school friends’ move on to college and careers leaving him behind. As the film starts the possibility of a management position within the restaurant comes up and the overarching narrative deals with how he and his colleagues react to this. Cleverly the film uses a new employee Mitch (John Francis Daily, who himself has a pretty funny and well earned character arc throughout the film) to act as the audience surrogate, as such we get introduced to the way things work in a typical shift without the need for awkward exposition. Ryan Reynolds plays Monty, Dean’s best friend and wannabe ladies man. Reynolds mixture of charm and sarcasm plays well off of Long’s laid back goofiness and they are ably supported by a strong supporting cast. In fact the film plays best as an ensemble with each element of the workforce given enough personality and reality to stand out, amongst them Dane Cook and Anna Faris, who adds here to her solid list of strong supporting roles of recent years.

.

What surprised me about the film was the more low key and unattractive spin it puts on the job in question. Whilst funny in places and seemingly light-hearted the film also functions as a worryingly accurate mirror of what goes on in such workplaces. It is crude, rude and not afraid to exhibit the grimy, dirty practices bored and aimless staff will resort to, to get through the days. The grounded tone and look of the film help give a lot of the stories a sense that they are likely built off of real life events in one form or another, writer / director Rob McKittrick definitely seems like he has some demons to exhume with the making of the film.

.

It is this slightly nihilistic tone that keep the film from being like every other teen comedy of recent years, it deals with the machinations of daily life without glamorising it and yet retaining likeable enough characters and situations throughout. It is not especially deep or often laugh out loud funny, but it is relatively short and moves briskly with a somewhat understated and fitting finale. If you’ve ever worked in a low pay dead-end job then there will probably be a lot to identify with here, and it’s observed with a keen enough eye to be worth your time.