THE ASSISTANT
DIRECTORKitty Green
CASTJulia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen,
Kristine Froseth, Makenzie Leigh, Jon OrsiniPLOTJane (Garner) is a young graduate who has
starting working at a film production companywith
the goal of ultimately becoming a producer. For
now, she is an assistant — and on one crucial
day she slowly realises just how much shady
behaviour is running through the higher ranks.OUT23 JULY
★★★★ CERTTBC/87 MINS[FILM]
THE SKY IS dark and quiet both when Jane (Julia
Garner) fi rst walks into the offi ce, and when she
leaves. “First one in, last one out, right?” she’s
reminded. Jane does everything, for everyone;
taking calls, booking cars, cleaning fl oors, stacking
bottles, washing dishes. Green spends the fi rst
20 minutes or so showing this in real time —
mundanities are aff orded much more than
a montage. We are never told her job title, but
it never feels necessary. We know she is a fi lm
production company assistant, and that meansshe must be able to do anything. For who? All we
get is a “he”. Jane works for a very important man
that everyone knows, everyone wants to impress
and everyone talks about. We don’t get his name
or his face, but that doesn’t matter. Kitty Green’s
debut dramatic feature (following documentaries
Ukraine is Not A Brothel and Casting JonBenet)
is strongest in its silences, entirely in control of
a subtext that screams without making a sound.
The fi lm is in part inspired by stories of
Harvey Weinstein’s years of criminal behaviour
with women in the fi lm industry, ranging from
harassment to rape. In its execution, The Assistant
makes rare references to this, or in fact to any
names that might seem too familiar. The most
specifi c namedrops are a fi lm festival (Cannes)
and a crime scene (Beverly Hills’ Peninsula hotel).
This approach works brilliantly, as it
treats the viewer as intelligent enough to read
between the lines and shout back at the screen
with every micro-aggression thrown at Julia,
even when she won’t let herself say anything.
The most propulsive scene sees her come close
to breaking, as she sits across the desk of HR
manager Wilcock (Matthew Macfadyen, clearly
cast off the back of his role as the seedy Tom
Wambsgans from Succession, rather than his
legacy as Mr Darcy). She doesn’t know where
else to turn, when a day of threatening phone
calls, one-sided conversations and crucial
disappearances becomes too much for one
person to shoulder.There are two words that Macfadyen
delivers with contempt that feel white-hot.
He asks, “And?” and then tossesaway
a “jealous” to Jane. The decisions he has made
— to question and to judge — are the ones
that force Jane to carry more than any one
individual should ever have to. Literally?
Mugs, coats, children. Emotionally? Dismissals,
underestimations, lies.
Garner is captivating and elevates the
film into emotionally shaking art with rigidly
chilly body language. Her silences are always
meticulously deployed, her eyes seem to remain
dry through arduous effort. When they glisten,
only for a moment, you know she’ll rein it
back in a blink.
This is a frustrating film not in its delivery,
which is sophisticated and sharp, but because
of how easy it is to draw parallels with so many
real-life stories of distrusted women staying
silent in unfair situations for too long. Let us
listen toThe Assistant: the time of keeping
other people’s secrets in the dark must come
to an end.ELLA KEMPJulia Garner as Jane, discovering
the dark side of the workplace.ON SCREEN
VERDICT A stirring, sober examination
of an ongoing injustice, The Assistant speaks
to women whose discomfort is ignored,
and bravely says that they matter, their
feelings have been noticed. Now is the
time for us to act on them.