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WORKING MAN
Director: Robert Jury Cast: Peter Gerety, Billy Brown, Talia Shire, J. Salome Martinez, Patrese McClain, Ryan Hallahan, Bobby Richards, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Mike Brunlieb, Barbara E. Robertson, Matthew Russell MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:49 Release Date: 5/5/20 (digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 4, 2020 Writer/director Robert Jury begins his Working Man as a subtle, low-key drama about a man who loses his job when the factory closes and, despite that, just keeps going to work. It's the sort of allegorical premise that says a lot without the characters saying a word. Those characters do start talking and acting in far more obvious ways, and Jury's debut movie ends up losing almost all of its potential, quiet power to melodrama and a sense of mission. The working man of the title is Allery Parkes (Peter Gerety), who has worked at the same factory for decades. The factory shuts down, and everyone collects their final paycheck, except for Allery, who just keeps working until the manager tells him to leave. After a day of doing nothing, Allery decides to return to the abandoned factory, where he keeps to his old schedule, and returns home to his confounded and worried wife Iola (Talia Shire). He does the same the next day, the day after, and the day after that. Jury doesn't need to make any solid or specific point, because the simple story and Gerety's melancholy, lived-in performance say it all for the filmmaker. Here is a man who has sacrificed most of his life—a marriage that has become rote, a son whose death he can neither forget nor discuss, an existence that is founded upon the daily grind—for a job. Now, that job is gone, and there is nothing else for or to the man. For the first act, the movie just watches Allery, without judgement and through the compassion of mere observation, as he goes through the now-meaningless motions, and we're left to wonder if they ever had any meaning beyond the grind and the paycheck. They did to him, and that's all that matters. Things escalate, first when Walter (Billy Brown), a co-worker and newcomer to town, joins Allery and then as others from the factory do. The laid-off workers start a minor revolution. The local news starts noticing, and the company bigwigs start to worry. Working Man gradually finds a sense of purpose beyond Allery's loss of purpose. While Jury handles revelations about some of these characters (mostly Allery and Water, whose own problems reflect ones from the former's past) with care and sensitivity, the raised stakes feel artificial compared to what has come before them. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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