Horrible Bosses

3 stars

You can practically hear little coils of contempt tightening inside Jason Bateman every time he's in a pickle on screen.

In the new comedy "Horrible Bosses" the Bateman specialty is the are-you-trying-to-tell-me response. At one point in the film, when confronted with some improbable information, the "Arrested Development" alum asks one of his partners in idiot crime: "You found a hit man online?" "Horrible Bosses" is not Noel Coward, nor is it trying to be. And any sort of comedy benefits from an underplayer in its midst.

Cleverly structured, "Horrible Bosses" works in spite of its cruder, scrotum-centric instincts.

Director Seth Gordon's film was produced by Brett Ratner and Jay Stern, who made their pile on the "Rush Hour" films. Going in, therefore, you know you'll be subjected to a full complement of screeching tires and mayhem only tangentially related to the reasons people might get a few laughs out of this thing.

But they will. I did, anyway. Ground down by their respective, heinous supervisors, the friends played by Bateman (as Nick, the would-be manager), Jason Sudeikis (an accountant and full-time horn dog) and panic-prone Charlie Day (playing a relentlessly harassed dental assistant) dare themselves into becoming murderers. Their South Central LA "murder consultant," played by Jamie Foxx, offers advice and counsel.

Kevin Spacey, the only man in American movies drier and more ironic than Bateman, dines out on the role of Bateman's boss, a smug control freak. Colin Farrell brings massive, slobby relish to Sudeikis' tormentor, a cocaine fiend who fancies himself a martial arts master. Jennifer Aniston scanties around as the predatory dentist who employs, harasses and blackmails Day.

"Strangers on a Train" and "Throw Momma From the Train" are not simply purloined here. They're actually name-checked in Foxx's introductory scene in a way that acknowledges the thievery on the fly. I like this script's sense of direction; you know where it's going, yet supporting characters ranging from Foxx's adviser to the unseen voice of a particularly astute GPS have a way of re-entering the narrative at opportune moments.

The byplay between the three leads includes an overeager number of anal-rape references (the optimal number being none), but the trio feed off one another's energies in a pleasing way. One of the best sight gags in "Horrible Bosses" presents one of the few certifiably clean jokes in the picture: Day's attempt to slide under a garage door before it hits the pavement. Why is this funny? It's funny because director Gordon held the shot. He didn't cut for "maximum comic impact," the way his own producer, Ratner, likely would have.

Aniston's role isn't Aniston's fault. Playing a conniver whose voracious sexual appetite has turned her into a freak, Aniston is certainly game. Yet she's not much fun. "Horrible Bosses" exists in the usual arrested-development Boys Town of early 21st century Hollywood comedy; there's no room for a witty or surprising female character in this town, only maniacal sluts or more easygoing ones. It's a credit to the cast and, at their liveliest, to the writers that the results percolate in a way that movies such as "The Hangover Part II" never did. And keep an eye on Day; the bearded imp from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" scores substantial laughs by letting his thick-headed panic escalate, slowly, so that his voice seems to be changing all over again, 20 years after adolescence.

 

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"Horrible Bosses" Movie Trailer

 

MPAA rating: R (for crude and sexual content, pervasive language and some drug material).

Running time: 1:40.

Cast: Jason Bateman (Nick); Charlie Day (Dale); Jason Sudeikis (Kurt); Jennifer Aniston (Dr. Harris); Colin Farrell (Bobby); Kevin Spacey (Dave); Jamie Foxx (Dean Jones); Julie Bowen (Mrs. Harken).

Credits: Directed by Seth Gordon; written by Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein; produced by Brett Ratner and Jay Stern. A New Line Cinema release.

 

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