`Sharks' shows how everyday stresses can twist you
At its core is the '80s theme of aggressive ambitiousness (as seen in Wall Street ) transferred to the ruthless boardrooms of the American movie industry. The film is made with enough of an anti-Hollywood edge to break the fairy tale mold that characterizes factory-line films.
On a broader level, Swimming with Sharks makes a statement about humanity that may leave a sick feeling in your stomach. The actors don't play their characters as wildly different from mainstream Americans except that the "sharks" are fighting for bigger prizes. This makes the movie accessible, interesting and downright scary at the same time. On top of great acting and an interesting story line, this movie utilizes a frequently-used but in this case interesting format of shifting from past to present. It all comes together into a movie that both entertains and agitates.
The storyline is pretty simple: A young upstate New Yorker wanting a career in the film industry gets a job as an assistant to a powerful show-business executive. The job turns out to be more than he bargained for, mainly because his boss is a psychopathic sleaze. On top of this, the woman of his dreams comes knocking at the wrong time in his life.
This is the story of Guy (Frank Whaley), a supposed Joe Anybody who becomes twisted by the pressures of his job. The crux of the story is that Guy blames everything he becomes and everything that happens to him on his boss, Buddy Akerman (Kevin Spacey).
I won't give away how Guy deals with his anger since that is one of the more interesting and disturbing twists to the movie. In the end it becomes the movie's issue: Is Guy a victim of a twisted system or does he choose his path because of his personal ambitions?
Although this movie is about Guy, the most entertaining and interesting character is Buddy. The evil people in movies often tend to be the most amusing, a formula that holds true here. Buddy sends out the insulting zingers in a way that makes you laugh regardless of how mean they are. One of my personal favorites is, "If you were in my toilet bowl, I wouldn't bother flushing it."
Making this character cuttingly witty keeps the movie from being heavy or depressing. In part because of this, the movie entertains throughout and it was only afterwards that I thought about how subversively malignant it was.
As a whole, this is definitely a movie that I would recommend seeing. The writing borders on superb, and the actors for the most part carry the dialogue at just the right note. At times the personalities of the characters, Guy's especially, are a little one-dimensional, but the faults in this movie are easily forgiven. It's witty, satirical and sharp; surely everyone can find something to think about in its maxim: "Kill your parents. Fuck your friends. And have a nice day."
Swimming with Sharks plays at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. this Saturday and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Rice Media Center for $4 with a Rice ID.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the September 22, 1995 issue.
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