Swimming with Sharks

The Review

When Swimming with Sharks opens, paramedics are depositing a sheet-draped body in an ambulance. The audience knows that someone has made a bad decision, for the police presence in the residential neighborhood means a homicide, not a heart attack. To explain what has happened, writer/director George Huang uses a series of flashbacks. From these, we learn that Guy [Frank Whaley], a lowly assistant to a powerful Hollywood executive, must choose between power and art.

The first flashback depicts the previous evening when Guy reaches the breaking point. His boss Buddy Ackerman [Kevin Spacey] is ready to fire him, and this news inspires Guy to take Buddy hostage. Guy waves a gun and declares, "It's payback time," and we expect a goofy revolt like the one secretaries stage in 9 to 5.

The next flashback is Guy's first day at work a year earlier. Here we gain two important insights: On the one hand, Buddy is a nightmare boss; he flaunts his power to make or break careers and insults the underlings. But we also learn from world-weary Rex [Benicio Del Toro], Buddy's former assistant, that if Guy can tolerate the abuse, he will eventually win a powerful position in the movie industry.

The rest of the film bounces between the escalating violence during Buddy's kidnapping—we are soon thinking Stephen King's Misery rather than 9 to 5—and the small and large indignities heaped on Guy during his year of servitude. The power Buddy wields is seductive, and he teases Guy with a taste, exclaiming, "You and I are going to run this place" after Guy reworks a script for a potential blockbuster.

Guy has a second powerful force in his life, his lover Dawn Lockard [Michelle Forbes]. The relationship begins with a tongue-lashing when Dawn finds Guy in her parking spot. Once she realizes that Guy works for Buddy, she takes him out for drinks to apologize; as she admits, she needs her calls to get on Buddy's phone sheet, which Guy now controls. Next, she takes the young assistant to bed, charmed after Guy explains the powerful tangle of movies and memories.

Like Guy, Dawn suffered professional hazing while climbing the show business ladder. Now a producer with power of her own, Dawn tries to get Guy to avoid the mistakes she made. She wants him to hone his talents as a writer, not a sycophant. Muse-like, Dawn hopes to inspire Guy to make art, not deals.

Guy's final decision between these two people is so shocking that the movie benefits from a second viewing. Then you can appreciate the loving attention to detail and craft. When the credits roll, you realize that Huang has depicted a busy office in a frantic town with a cast of nine and a handful of well-placed extras. Watch for costuming changes that indicate character development. For example, Guy begins the job with a cowlick and a tied tongue, but as he masters the skills necessary to assist Buddy, he becomes the smooth talker with slick hair. Or watch Dawn go from power bitch, blasting Guy about the parking spot [in an otherwise empty lot], to Zen master in an office-appropriate, wide-sleeved Buddhist "robe" as she attempts to steer her grasshopper away from the authority and affluence Buddy is dangling. Spacey is a master of transitions. Observe how one moment his Buddy is an affable, loose-muscled, enthusiastic manager, and then the next his eyes grow cold, his face freezes, his voice slows as he remembers that the other human being in the room has the importance [or intelligence] of a paper clip.

A second viewing will also let you hear with new insight. Tom Hiel's score, with lots of high-note piano, mimics the way Buddy's abuse plucks Guy's nerves. Abundant dialogue clues indicate the surprising conclusion to come. Listen closely, for example, to Dawn. Like the Oracle at Delphi [but with less ambiguity], she announces the future: "You're going to make a killing in this business."

A real delight about Swimming with Sharks is that Huang, himself an assistant to Hollywood executives, obviously resisted the temptation of power, with all of its left-brain scheming, for he created the art that is this movie.

Video Teasers

You can view the trailer at YouTube. Lions Gate provides a number of scenes: Guy's Revenge, Sweet 'N Low, Rex Gives Rundown, Pencils More Important, and Late Night.

To Own the Movie

Swimming with Sharks is an easy purchase at Amazon US, UK, or iTunes.

Cross Post

This review exists at Amazon US.