Rudin has not been accused of sexual harassment by underlings but of extremely abusive behavior, including throwing objects at his staff on a regular basis, which is a timely reminder of how tough the assistant’s lot is.
Through Weinstein’s trial and many interviews and articles, we have heard from the victims and Weinstein himself has denied their accusations many times. But we haven’t heard much from those who enabled Weinstein and predators like him, the people who set up the appointments for their boss with women or who ushered actresses into hotel rooms as if there was actually going to be a real business meeting. It’s easy to condemn those who made it easy for Weinstein to do as he wished, but The Assistant makes us understand what is at stake for them.
It takes us deeply into this murky and intimate world, which we see through the eyes of the unnamed assistant (in the credits her name is listed as Jane but no one utters it in the film) during a single workday. Her fears of messing up, disappointing her boss and losing her job conflict with her sense that he is abusing women and she is helping him do so, in a way that traps her in a kind of chronic torment. Her boss is never shown or even named, but he dominates the movie with low-key menace that never diminishes, much like the shark from the movie Jaws which was not shown during the first two-thirds of that film. Just as the shark was scarier when we didn’t see it and didn’t know when it was coming, this elusive boss who is so important that his own assistant rarely lays eyes on him is terrifying.
He has the power to fire the assistant, and also, in a very real sense, to destroy her career and her sense of herself. He requires her to be the first one at the office and the last one to leave, he sets her endless lists of often contradictory or impossible tasks and, although it is never stated explicitly, he could require sex of her as he does from many other young women.
When a waitress from Idaho shows up, saying she has been hired as an assistant but is installed in a fancy hotel and is not taught anything about what the real work of an assistant entails, Garner’s character feels understandably threatened. She has to measure her fear of speaking out over her sense that she is being unfairly pushed out. Her dilemma gives this low-key, minimalist movie – it’s boring at times in the way that a long workday can be tedious – its sharpest dramatic thrust.
Garner, best known for her portrayal of the tough redneck, Ruth, in Ozark (for which she won two Emmys), radiates tension and energy in this performance. She makes us feel the assistant’s ambition, so we can understand that quitting this job and just walking away would not be a simple matter for her. One of the most interesting younger American actresses, Garner is the daughter of an Israeli, Tami Gingold, who had a successful career as a comedian here before moving to the US.
The movie, which parallels the real Weinstein story down to the smallest details, is about more than just one predatory boss. It’s about a culture of workplace inequality, which was also critiqued by Camille Perri in her novel The Assistants, and the crushing load of being totally subservient to another human being and never knowing when that servitude will end. Many of us can identify with a character in this situation; although the movie feels so real, it will make you squirm as often as it entertains you.