X
- 2002
- PG-13
- Outrider Pictures
- 1 h 23 m
- 2002
- PG-13
- Outrider Pictures
- 1 h 23 m
Directed By: Jonathan Parker
Written By: Herman Melville, Catherine DiNapoli, Jonathan Parker
- 2002
- PG-13
- Outrider Pictures
- 1 h 23 m
- 2002
- PG-13
- Outrider Pictures
- 1 h 23 m
Bartleby
48
7.1
Directed By: Jonathan Parker
Written By: Herman Melville, Catherine DiNapoli, Jonathan Parker
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
48
32% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
42% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
26% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
48
32% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
42% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
26% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
While Parker and co-writer Catherine di Napoli are faithful to Melville’s plotline, they and a fully engaged supporting cast — have made the old boy's characters more quick-witted than any English Lit major would have thought possible.
This is a shrewd and effective film from a director who understands how to create and sustain a mood.
Although closer in tone to "Office Space" than Herman Melville, Jonathan Parker's absurdist update of Bartleby is surprisingly faithful to the spirit, if not the letter, of the "Moby-Dick" author's 1853 novella about an under-achieving Wall Street copy clerk.
It's not a bad idea, and it has the right cast and the right look. But, sad to say, it lacks the pace and energy to make it come alive and therefore remains more of a literary conceit than a movie.
Parker's film is flat beyond the flatness appropriate to the story; the conflict between Glover and Paymer follows Melville's original so squarely that it quickly begins to feel like they're going through the motions.
The loud, musty production design -- steeped in lime greens and tangerine oranges -- smells of recirculated air and enervated ambition, but unfortunately, so does the movie itself.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 User Ratings
7.1
38% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
63% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 User Ratings
7.1
38% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
63% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
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