• Tweet

Three out of Five stars
Running time: 99 mins

Sharply written, impressively directed drama with superb performances and some intriguing observations about celebrity culture and the media.

What's it all about?
Christian Slater plays disgruntled office worker Bob Maconel, who's ignored by his colleagues and bullied by his annoying boss (Jamison Jones) on a daily basis. Bob daydreams of "going postal" and secretly brings a gun to work every day hoping to muster up the courage to embark on an office-based shooting spree.

However, when a fellow employee beats Bob to the punch and opens fire on his co-workers, Bob shoots him and becomes an accidental hero in the process. Bob's fortunes quickly change: head honcho Shelby (William H Macy) gives him a promotion and he even starts dating the office hottie (Elisha Cuthbert), but nothing turns out quite the way he expects.

The Good
Christian Slater is superb as Bob, delivering a performance that is simultaneously sympathetic and disturbing, while Elisha Cuthbert plays against type to great success as the former hottie turned angry quadriplegic, who takes her rage out on Bob but is also dependent on him. There's also strong support from William H Macy in a small but effective role as the smooth-talking company-owner.

Writer-director Cappello does a good job of disguising the film's bargain basement production values, using several disorienting techniques and playing around with light and sound to good effect. Similarly, his frequent use of intense close-ups adds considerably to the claustrophobic atmosphere and keeps you in a constant state of tension with regards to Bob's fragile mental state.

The Bad
That said, the film's not entirely without flaws. For one thing, it contains the worst body double sex scene in recent history, to the point where they shouldn't have bothered pretending if they couldn't get Cuthbert to agree to a topless scene (someone else's breasts are clumsily edited in instead, fooling precisely no one).

Worth seeing?
In short, He Was A Quiet Man is a enjoyably dark and decidedly offbeat little film that has Future Cult Movie written all over it. Worth seeking out.