Movie reviews: Hollywood and Indie, specializing in independent comedies, dramas, thrillers and romance.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Miss Nobody: Movie Review
Murder in a fun, cartoon-like environment.
Sarah Jane McKinney (Leslie Bibb) is Miss Nobody, a secretary for a pharmaceutical company who has no boyfriend but faith that her guiding angel will send her messages as to what she should be doing. Her mother ensures her that everybody lies, so a very smudged resume gets her a promotion to junior executive.
2010
Directed by: Tim Cox
Screenplay by: Doug Steinberg
Starring: Leslie Bibb and Adam Goldberg
Sarah Jane is mostly concerned about finding her knight in shining armour since a job is only a job and doesn’t warm your heart. Karma, an underlying belief in this film, says that you get what you deserve. She didn’t really deserve that promotion, and indeed finds that she lost it after all and is now a secretary for a new, young, handsome company transfer. But that must be her path in life since he’s handsome and men always sleep with their secretary.
But to be clear, this is not a romantic comedy. It’s a light-hearted dark, crime comedy. It seems fantasy-like, or even cartoon-like in its use of colour, narration and score choice. It tries to be edgy, like film noir, but is way too silly for that mix to work well. But it is fun, and that is most likely its ultimate aim.
When she accidentally murders her handsome boss, it turns out she wants to aim high in the corporate world – she wants the corner office. As her guiding angel sends her more messages, it looks like more accidental murders might be in her future and life is looking pretty grand for Miss Sarah Jane.
The best part of the film is Adam Goldberg, he introduces himself as her knight in shining armour, and while she is smitten with him, he happens to be a homicide detective. The instant conflict that we can see in their relationship is handled well.
The performances throughout the film are great and the sense of fun is always there. They are definitely going for something fairly unique and for the most part they succeed in that. There was a bit too much narration; better films would be able to show me what they need to and then let me figure out the rest, and things get wrapped up in a slightly unsatisfying way, but for Miss Nobody it’s more about the journey and how we get there.
