1/11/2007

Janice Beard, 45 WPM

Director: Clare Kilner
(1999)

In a film that must have been a joy to read on paper, director Clare Kilner manages to be far too creative for her own good, creating quirk after quirk in this just plain bizarre work about a hapless, pathological liar who accepts a secretarial position in order to pay for her depressive agoraphobic mother’s treatment. Office Space does the office politics humor better and Amelie succeeds in balancing eccentricities with charm—Janice Beard is a mischievous heroine and she uncovers a far-fetched espionage plot that again would've worked better in script form but you’ll struggle to feel connected to such an oddball.