"The Assistant" was accompanied by a marketing campaign indicating that he was inspired by the scandal of the famous American producer, Harvey Weinstein, which erupted in October 2017, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
The movie begins with a girl named Jane (Julia Garner), who works as an assistant to a film production company in New York, who follows the Weinstein scandal knowing that his Miramax company is the intended one. Jane has only been in her job for five weeks, and looks like a terrified bird in his cage.
She watches her for an entire hour, she does not see feelings or feelings in her face, she sees nothing but fear and submission, she sees her making mistakes and is obliged to apologize in a strange scene, as she seems unable to write even a letter of apology, and sees her co-workers standing next to her dictating the words she writes in the mail Mail.
It is clear that she is new, and in addition to her basic work, some of the work that is undervalued is required. For example, she asks lunch for her colleague and her boss, and she cleans his office after lunch, and finds traces of things that appear later in the movie.
Jane arranges travel matters for her boss, receives guests and takes them to their hotels that have booked their rooms by themselves, serves Jane guests of her boss and prepares food for them and eat the rest of it if they do not touch him.
Jane spends long hours at her office, and she seems to be used to it or was told about it immediately after hiring her, and she accepts the offer despite his problems. We know that indirectly, when she says that she missed her father’s birthday, and we know that when we see her leaving very late from her office and turning off the lights.
Staff treats Jin in a kind of inferiority, she talks to them and responds to her without raising their eyes from the computer screen. There is a reason why Jin ignores the humiliation accompanying her job, and we know through a dialogue with the Human Resources Department that she wants to graduate from help to a film producer in a company that is clearly prestigious, and that is why Jin endures this treatment.
The film takes place in one day (exactly 80 minutes until the last scene), of course we do not see its president but we hear his voice saying not all understandable words, he does not settle in his office for long periods, his voice is terrifying on the phone when Jane reprimanded her for stealing his private life, which The film insinuates us that it is an integral part of his life at work.
After being scolded, he tells her some nice words, as if he promises her something that she will get if she is silent. This subject of silence seems confusing. Everyone knows what is going on in the company, but they are silent or deny.
In a scene of Jane gathering with new help (embodied by Kristin Froseth) in a limousine heading to the hotel, the help says she was a waitress before her company conditions were set up. The new assistant asks Jane about the hotel she stayed in before hiring the company, and the latter responds that there was no hotel and kept silent.
But what is happening? The matter is evident in the scene where Jane enters the HR employee, Willcock (Matthew McFedin), to tell him what she saw and seen five weeks ago without expressing her opinion clearly.
Wellcock tells her with his logic, meaning that it is normal and everyone knows him, Jane tells him that new Idaho help was made because she is small and beautiful, although she does not have any experience, and she was housed in such a hotel, and she knows that her boss left the office and went to the hotel itself according to the words employees.
The topic is clear to both the viewer and the audience, but the question from Wilcock is: Did the girl do something harmful to the company? Jane returns the tale from its inception, not believing that Welcock did not understand what was meant, telling her: Are you in my office for this reason?
Jane tears tears, and Willcock tells her: Are you jealous? Jane denies this and says she is worried about the girl, and leaves, before she leaves, Wilcock says don't worry, you are not his favorite. The scene is the climax of the film, and is beautifully executed and written, but it gives the impression that the filmmaker, Australian Kitty Green, is reluctant to reveal the hidden. This topic in particular no longer needs shy and suggestive hints and signs after the "My Too" campaign.
The movie wants you to infer what is happening, as the picture is clear in your perception, despite the characters' attempts to hide it. The whole movie is from Jane's point of view, and this is a strong point. We don't see a character that justifies a counterpoint or denies what Jane sees. Yes, there is recognition of suspicious practices in this company, but everyone prefers to ignore and continue to work.
The goal is to focus on Jane's experience in the company and see what she sees as hidden that can only be proven through the personal purposes that fall from the girls who visit her boss in his office, whose employees mock him in his absence, and in a scene they enter his office and warn some of them to sit on the sofa laughing .
Of course, as is well known in many movies, when the intended camera is obscured by the movie, i.e. Chief Jin, and avoids the appearance of his face and is satisfied with it from afar, this reflects that even the camera cannot confront him or show his ugliness of his actions.
Green would have liked to end her film with a climax scene between Willcock and Jane, as he is the strongest of his dialogue between a man who knows and denies the truth, and an employee who learns and hints at it. This contradiction between the two logical thinking is the strongest point in the movie, or to end it with a scene of limousine dialogue is another strong.
The end of the movie is weak and suggests the character's loss, confusion, and inability to reveal the hidden, and the viewer has the right to imagine that Jin's fate will be like new help, meaning that she might give up something to her boss in order to give her the opportunity to become a film producer, which is the end of the contradiction of the new reality that is no longer tolerating With these ugly behaviors.
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The movie wants you to infer what is happening, as the picture is clear in your perception, despite the characters' attempts to hide it.
The end of the movie is weak, and it suggests the character's loss, confusion, and inability to reveal the hidden, an end that contradicts the new reality.