Eileen McHenry I found this movie disturbing. Advertised as a comedy, it is no such thing. There is a lot of comedy in there, all right, but overall the themes are heavy, disturbing, even horrific. Crispin Glover's performance is flawless, and his role in the story is to pose a lot of questions that never get answered. The story revolves around the other characters' failure to figure him out. The new employee at the Public Records Office in an unnamed city starts out doing a great job, but he does less and less work as time goes on until he is spending most of his time refusing requests to perform any job tasks, or simply gazing up into the air-conditioning vent. They fire him, but he doesn't leave. It gets worse from there, believe me.

rosscinema The phrase "I prefer not to" uttered by the titled protagonist is said with such honesty that it's hard to argue with it when it's spoken. This is a modern update of the Herman Melville story and I think the modern setting actually enhances the attitude of the story. Story is set in a Public Records Office and The Boss (David Paymer) is looking to hire someone to help out with the workload. He has a secretary named Vivian (Glenne Headly) who is very flirtatious and it's she that puts the ad in the paper for her boss. The other clerks are Rocky (Joe Piscopo) who is a male chauvinist and proud of it, and Ernie (Maury Chaykin) who is just incredibly inept and clumsy. After the ad hits the paper a man applies for the job. Enter Bartleby (Crispin Glover), a very quiet loner that wears the same suit and speaks very little. At first he works very well and files everything that he is suppose to but one day The Boss asks him to do something and he utters "I prefer not to". In fact, Bartleby stops working completely and when asked to do his job he repeats the phrase. The Boss fires him but he will not leave. Finally, The Boss moves the whole office to another building which leaves Bartleby with nowhere to go. *****SPOILER ALERT*****Bartleby becomes homeless and when The Boss tries to help he says "I prefer not to". Bartleby dies under a bridge while still wearing his suit. The Boss writes a novel about him and vows to make sure Bartleby's existence is not to be considered meaningless. The film is directed by Jonathan Parker and he shows some promising style to this low budget production. The look of the film is very colorful and most of the colors comes from the scenes inside the office, where the majority of the film takes place. Parker shows the office as the most insanely boring deadend job on the planet but the work environment of these poor clerks is decorated in bright colors and the outfits that the characters wear are unusually cheery. The story makes its point fairly early on and the big flaw of the film is that it overstays it's welcome. The Melville story is short and even though this film runs barely 80 minutes it seems a bit to long. But the big asset is the casting. Say what you will about the story, but Crispin Glover was born to play Bartleby. I just can't imagine another actor in this role. One of the things that I admire about his performance is that when he utters the phrase "I prefer not to" he does it differently each time. All with complete honesty but his tone, his inflection and his overall mood is different each time. This is not a great film with a great message but it is an interesting retelling of Melville's story of the common man trapped in a deadend job. The direction is spirited and Glover gives the perfect quirky performance that the film needed. It's well worth checking out.

LynxMatthews This film is offbeat, so it will turn a lot of folks off right away, especially since at first glance, people think they are going to get an Office Space-type of workplace commentary. Although the movie DOES make many subtle points about the kind of buildings and office parks people are forced to work at every day, it is true to the enigmatic essence of the Melville story. There is a lot to recommend here: Paymer provides the humanity. How funny is it when he is pretending to be a record exec and shows his young galpal his different phone lines: "Hello, Mr. Rapper? How are you doing?" The secretary is very sexy. Piscopo and the other guy make a great team of mismatched co-workers. Both fit stereotypes, but remain true characters. The production look is colorful and strange.The ending is problematic in that Paymer seems to change a bit too suddenly. His speech about his book idea comes across like the filmmaker trying to sum things up a bit too neatly. So it wasn't entirely satisfying.But the world was a fun one to inhabit.

kulaboy My first reaction to "Bartleby" is that this movie is much like a previous Crispin Glover effort, "Rubin and Ed" about a strange, directionless man with little background, who plods his way through life carelessly. Some of the awkward moments and surreal dialogue and movements within Bartleby seem to be forced, trying to hard, to capture a campy feel. The film doesn't quite reach a campy status though because of this. Although Glover captures his quirky behavior perfectly, from staring at the air vent for hours, to endlessly saying "I prefer not to.." to every work request, and the dynamics of the working relationship with his boss are interesting at times. Joe Piscopo and Maury Chaykin have some strange roles as co-workers who are up to no good... how these guys stay employed are a mystery.Bartleby has two major problems. One is, it just gets boring. A good slow movie can do and say a lot, but Bartleby just seems to be obsessed more with how weird it can be, how far it can push the surrealism of its cast and the corporate buildings on the hills. Another thing is, why does Bartleby's boss take such an interest in him? What is the motivation? Perhaps this is best explained in Herman Melville's book, from which this movie is based. For a Crispin Glover fan, this is even barely worth watching.