Bartleby (2001)

Overrated and overhyped

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Admirable film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This past weekend while looking through films and shows to watch during a bit of free time, I happened upon this modernized version of the Bartleby story.The casting was wonderful for the parts. I would like to further explain all the details in great lengths as to shy you should take the time to watch this film. Um . . .Actually, now that I think of it . . ."I prefer not to." (Enjoyable piece) If you like a bit of dark comedy as it pertains to the corporate world, then this piece is for you.dsc

If you are looking for humor...avoid! If you are looking for quirky depression....by all means, enjoy.I am always a fan of finding little known gems in the movie store, but this movie, unfortunately is not one of them. Despite having all of the makings of a delicious find (I believe the description on the jacket even said "side-splitting comedy!")I spent the next hour or so in a trance of 'I thought this was funny..." "Maybe it will get funnier once it is fully set up,' 'maybe it will get funny now,' 'maybe now!' It never got funny. In fact, the only character you can even hope to identify with is the boss, but very thinly. Oh sure, it had some hilarious moments, but they were very short lived and not enough to call this a comedy or sustain you through the rest of the slow and slipping plot towards utter collapse.I guess that is my main problem with it. The movie is quirky and (dare I say it) 'indy-ish' but NOT a comedy, despite the insistence of the tag-lines. For the most part it was vague and depressing, but it does manage to hold your attention, if only by sheer shock.

Bartleby is an excellent film. It was on HBO 2 days after I read Melville's "Bartleby" short story for college. This movie is a modernized version of Melville's tale but it keeps to the main purpose of the story very well without too much drastic changes and I think even Melville would approve of this movie. Do not see this movie without first carefully reading Melville's story first or it will not make sense to you and you won't enjoy it. This movie has some comedy to keep it light at times but the overall message that the viewer is supposed to get remains the same, I won't tell you the message so I don't spoil this movie for you. If you enjoy social comedies with depth in them this is your movie, if you only like comedies with cheesy humor than this is not the film for you. Personally, I will watch this movie again and I was pleasantly surprised, I highly recommend this "undiscovered" film.

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.