#corner office

When I was checking the year for Corner Office I happened across a Redditt thread about the movie.

Overall people were saying they liked it and that the message that those who didn't like it were missing, was that it was about neurodivergence and how it fits into the corporate world. The fact that some didn't understand maybe speaks even further to its overall message.

A few people, despite liking it, said they wished they hadn't cast Jon because he was too good-looking and that there was no way a guy like Jon had never NOT thought of himself as good-looking. And that kind of irks me because it's just not true. There are shit tons of good-looking people who don't think of themselves as good looking.

They weren't downing his performance, just that he's too pretty. In my mind that's their own bias. And Jon has said before that he never really thought of himself as good-looking until MAD MEN made him famous and every interviewer was asking him dumb shit like, "When did you realize you were handsome?" If you look at young Jon, sure, he was a nice looking kid, but I also see a big nose and a big head that his body hadn't grown into yet, and while we see a nice looking guy I could easily see how he himself may not have thought the same thing.

When I first watched the movie back in Jan/Feb I was immediately super proud of him. He understood the assignment. There are two different versions of Orson you see in the movie. There is the version of himself on the main office floor and then the version of himself in "The Room". When he goes into the room it's like he can finally be himself and live up to his full potential. In The Room, you get the best version of Orson, the person he knows is there on the inside that he has a hard time showing the rest of the world. And Jon did an absolutely FANTASTIC job of showing the difference in Orson between the two spaces with the most subtle changes of expression.

Below we see Orson out of the room when he's on the main floor of the office.

Then here we see Orson in The Room. Of course the lighting helps and combing his hair instead of having it hanging over his brow, but you're not going to convince me that that alone is responsible for the complete change. In The Room his eyes look brighter and full of confidence. His expression says he's self-assured and successful and intelligent. Desirable even.

So like I said, some people thought they should have used a more everyday-man looking type (mostly men thinking that I'm sure), but I don't think it would have been as noticeable a change when he's in The Room if the actor had actually been unnattractive. Some said they should have used an uglier actor for main office Orson, and used Jon for The Room Orson, but I agree with someone who said that would have made it obvious almost right away that the room wasn't real.

I think choosing Jon wasn't the most obvious choice but a smart one.

A lot of people think Orson is autistic, and I can see it in a lot of things. One small example is the child's drawing where he just can't understand why the parent would keep their child's drawing of a sun rising from the middle of the sea with a land mass both in front of and behind it, when it's so clearly inaccurate. Another is how bothered he is by the flickering light in the breakroom and how it seems so bright and annoying to him and no one else. And another is how terribly upset with himself he is when it's brought to his attention that he's made a mistake by not putting booties over his shoes to protect the office floor.

Others say the character depicts a range of neurodiversities that are meant to be relatable to anyone with non-neurotypical brain or mental illness. Some say Orson had delusions, to where I saw them more as fantasies, but I don't think it changes the message of the movie either way.

So whichever the case, I still say Jon understood the assignment. I found Orson very relatable and have found myself feeling many of the things he so clearly feels in the film, so I'm not just blowing smoke up Jon's ass because I think he's hot. I know he nailed it because I've felt it. He performed it in a way that I feel, only a person who understood what it feels like to always be just left of everyone else around them, is able to do.

Even though I find the ending a bit sad, it still ranks among my favorite performances of his.

TL;DR – It has its moments, and it very much lands its vibe, but there is an intensity that loses its impact halfway through. ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 5. Corner Office Review – Today we are looking at a film that I can’t quite place into the world of genre’s it is not quite a comedy, or a drama, or even a mystery. It has elements of all of those, but not enough to categories it. The only thing I…