Frank Cappello’s He Was A Quiet Man (2007) is a strange little movie. It flits between comedy, drama and tragedy, is filled with all kinds of strange special effects and features Christian Slater with a comb-over. Need I say more.
The story follows Bob Malconel (Slater), a quiet, disgruntled office employee who sits in his coffin of a cubicle with dreams of blowing the building and everyone in it, sky high. He brings a gun to work everyday in the hope that one day he’ll pluck up the courage and perform an office Columbine. As if work wasn’t bad enough, he shares his home with a talking goldfish who routinely chastises him for not having the guts to do away with his co-workers. Told you it was odd.
When one day, a colleague of Bob’s beats him at his own game and decides to shoot everyone in the office, Bob uses his gun for good and shoots the guy, becoming an instant hero. The downside is that the one girl in the office that Bob is in love with, Venessa (Elisha Cuthbert), survives the shooting, but loses all feeling from the neck down after being shot.
Thus, one strange romantic drama is born. Whilst the odd special effects are unsettling and distracting at first, the story soon overwhelms them and it is both the plot and Slater’s brilliantly pent up performance that makes the film work. One of the delights of the film is its twists, turns and general inventiveness. When after five minutes you’re introduced to a potty mouthed goldfish, you can pretty much forget about predicting the rest of the story.
As the relationship arc of the story blooms, the film starts to take a more serious turn and the film, despite the funny talking goldfish and William H. Macy’s role as the annoying CEO, is desperately sad and all the more involving for it. You can’t help but feel for Bob, despite his initial intentions, as he finally ‘gets’ the girl but under entirely different circumstances from what he could have ever imagined.
The film’s ending is bound to divide audiences. You can either see it as a cop-out, an ending which completely undermines the entirety of the film, or, as I did, find that it makes the story even more tragic and personal than a film with a talking goldfish should ever be expected to be.
Following in the footsteps of other ‘ordinary people on the edge’ titles that include the great Network (1976), Taxi Driver (1976) (1976 seemed to be a good year for people losing it on screen, Carrie and The Omen also came out this year so it wasn’t just exclusively adults) and Falling Down (1993), He Was A Quiet Man brings a rare sentimentality that these films often lack. Carried by Slater’s great performance and rounded off with a brutal ending, Cappello’s film may look a little ‘TV movie’, but leaves just as much an emotional kick as any great, big screen weepie.
*Just a side note, the film, as emotional as it was, did not reduce me to tears (and I don't think that was it's aim). I only mention this to get onto the subject at crying at films. As a prime example of masculinity (...), and not really a crier (although I did weep at the BFG, but that was out of fear), I can recommend the Korean film, Peppermint Candy (1999) by Chang-dong Lee. It’s an amazing film that would leave the cast of The Expendables a blubbering mess. I defy you not to at least get glassy eyes.
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