Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 54
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 35
Bartleby is a rather dull affair, stretched over a too-long running time.
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 13
Bartleby is a rather dull affair, stretched over a too-long running time.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 1,875
Herman Melville's short story Bartleby the Scrivener gets a slightly surreal update in this offbeat comedy drama. The manager (David Paymer) of the city records department in a mid-sized California community decides that his staff of three -- flirty chatterbox Vivian (Glenne Headly), sloppy Vietnam vet Ernie (Maury Chaykin), and slick-suited, Don Juan wannabe Rocky (Joe Piscopo) -- could use some help, so he places an ad looking for a new employee. The boss ends up hiring the one and only
PG-13, 1 hr. 22 min.
May 24, 2002 Limited
Jul 8, 2003
$60.3k
Parker Film Co
All Critics (60) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (36) | DVD (3)
What was subtle and mystifying in the novella is now broad and farcical.
Except for Paymer as the boss who ultimately expresses empathy for Bartleby's pain, the performances are so stylized as to be drained of human emotion.
The movie, like Bartleby, is something of a stiff -- an extra-dry office comedy that seems twice as long as its 83 minutes.
A much more successful translation than its most famous previous film adaptation, writer-director Anthony Friedman's similarly updated 1970 British production.
This is a shrewd and effective film from a director who understands how to create and sustain a mood.
I liked the original short story but this movie, even at an hour and twenty-some minutes, it's too long and it goes nowhere.
could have been better
The film was weird, but not funny or meaningful.
Watching it, I couldn't help but think of an old Jimmy Buffett lyric, "Living and Dying in Three-Quarter Time." This is life in the slow lane.
Glover is perfect for the role, and Paymer lends a strange, almost addictive voice to his character's vocal style.
Melville is often favored for his troubled heroes on their obsessive, nihilistic journeys into the abyss. Of course this kind of thing can be easy to screw up on film, as Parker has done here.
Paymer and Glover are terrific as the perplexed boss and the laconic non-performing employee.
Having seen the original film version of this back in the early 70's (with Paul Scofield I believe), I was intrigued; wondering if my teen impressions of Mr. Melville's classic short story would have the same kind of impact. As presented here, the film attempts an update of the story, placing it in modern day within a
August 11, 2010
Super Reviewer
I dig the short story quite a lot, and Crispin Glover is the absolute perfect cast for Bartleby the Scriviner.
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