Price Check (2012)

Sick Product of a Sick System

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

As Good As It Gets

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Why this movie doesn't work is an interesting question. It kept my attention all the way through, and apparently I'm still thinking about it. Parker Posey is great in her usual style as Susan Felders, playing a charismatic but unstable corporate executive.Eric Mabius is Pete Cozy (Who sold out for a cozy life, get it?), our ostensible protagonist, he is mostly just a straight man for Posey. We're told over and over how he used to be in the music business, which made him happy, and now he has a corporate job which does not.Cozy's wife, Sara (Annie Parrisse) seems like an intelligent and loving woman, but in terms of dialogue her main concerns are buying a Volvo, getting pregnant, and not getting a job.There's some adultery, and some intrigue, the consequences don't really show up until the last 15 minutes and then they're resolved off-screen, leaving everything almost exactly where we started except for a lifestyle bump and additional child for Pete and Sara.What did it all mean? I don't know. Maybe there's such a thing as too much ambiguity for your characters.

I agree with the majority that this is not the best film, but not bad either. The problem with it was the slow start and slow middle part, but the final act was so good. When I was watching it, I did not think I would rate it decently. I changed my mind after seeing the final few minutes and how it all ended.The film focused on a middle class family man who is working in a supermarket chain. But this is particularly about him and his boss. After he declined the top position in the office to lead a stress free normal life, his new boss who gets close to him for his good character. That complicates him, between office and family. When a big opportunity knocks, followed by a roadblock, what happened after that was covered in the remaining narration.Basically, the whole film was concentrated between two plus one character and occasionally supporting cast. As the poster hint, it's not Parker Posey's film, she was only part of it and a famous name among the cast. Though, actors like Amt Schumer and others are in small roles. So the performances were good, with the decent storyline. This is not a famous film, I don't think many had seen it or heard of it. It was more like a television film, the quality wise, especially for the holiday season. I Think it can be watched once with a low expectation, particularly the comedy parts.6/10

One of my favorite 90's actresses and a prominent role for the music of my favorite 90's indie rock band (Luna) pretty much assured that I'd like this. But, sadly, while it had some slim comedic elements, Price Check is pretty much a lightweight drama about facing midlife when your life hasn't panned out as you expected. A driven career woman (Posey) who has forsaken other aspects of her life to reach the point where she's at in her profession meets a family man-boy (Mabius) who lost his dream job at an indie record label and now grinds it out working in a low paying job in supermarket marketing. Posey is his new boss. They form an alliance of sorts and some complications ensue. It's a watchable film, but it isn't funny, witty, cerebral, dramatic or heart-filled. It just kind of lays there, like a movie that really doesn't know what it wants to be.

Anyone who's worked in an office environment will recognize the dread and anxiety of working under a high-strung new boss. What will surprise you is how the workers all adapt in one way or another. At first, out of fear of losing their lousy jobs in a down economy, but then, as their work might actually result in something positive, out of a sense of purpose, albeit consolatory.The performances are uniformly excellent and Parker Posey is both brittle and formidable. Her interactions with Pete (Eric Mabius) are fraught with tension and unpredictability. She plays a character motivated by ambition and her ultimate actions come both as a surprise and completely within the realm of probability. And the big reveal also reveals the lengths to which Pete will go to land employment, even if it's at a workplace he has little passion for.Most of the reviews I've read have misread the ending as losing its satirical edge. I'm assuming these reviewers think it ends happily. But it doesn't. Pete ends up doing exactly what he had said all throughout the movie he didn't want to do: give up on music and go to work in the retail corporate world. There is a very pointed message here. Pete is a sort of all-American everyman. Someone whose dreams were deferred indefinitely. The entire movie is about how people as bright and promising as Pete, and even his wife Sara, fool themselves into lives they never wanted. And about how they adapt to diminished expectations.How's that for striking close to the bone?