Career Opportunities (1991)

Director:

Bryan Gordon

Writer (WGA):

John Hughes (written by)

Release Date:

29 March 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

He took the job that no one wanted...and got the girl that everyone did.

Plot:

Josie, the daughter of the town's wealthiest businessman, faces problems at home and wishes to leave home...

Plot Keywords:

Liar | Target | Janitor | Department Store | Teen Angst

Cast

Frank Whaley	...	Jim Dodge
Jennifer Connelly	...	Josie McClellan
Dermot Mulroney	...	Nestor Pyle
Kieran Mulroney	...	Gil Kinney
John M. Jackson	...	Bud Dodge
Jenny O'Hara	...	Dotty Dodge
Noble Willingham	...	Roger Roy McClellan
Nada Despotovich	...	Penny Dodge
Reid Binion	...	Cal Dodge
Barry Corbin	...	Officer Don
Denise Galik	...	Lorraine (as Denise Galik-Furey)
Wilbur Fitzgerald	...	Bob Bosenbeck
Dan Albright	...	Dave Hockner
Marc Clement	...	Otis
Andrew Winton	...	Boy #1

Also Known As:

One Wild Night

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 (certificate #30893) | Germany:6 | South Korea:15 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Company:

Hughes Entertainment

Trivia:

The German title "Kevins Cousin allein im Supermarkt" references to "Home Alone" (1990) and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992).

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: After Jim grinds the pepper onto the chicken dish that he microwaves at Target, he puts the pepper mill back on the table, but the sound of the mill being replaced is heard before it actually touches the table surface.

Quotes:

Officer Don: Mr. McClellan, do you ever have any family problems, you and your daughter?
Roger Roy McClellan: What the hell do you think this is?
Officer Don: You got a point.

Movie Connections:

References Modern Times (1936)

Soundtrack:

Criminal Bop

Misunderstood Picaresque Masterpiece!

"Career Opportunities" is not only one of the finest films of the Last Great Golden Age Of American Cinema--the early 1990s, specifically, 1991 ("Another You", "For The Boys", "Highlander 2: The Quickening"--do I have to list more?), it might just one day revered as the "O Lucky Man" of the post-Reagan "grunge" era. A surrealist, even MAGICAL REALIST parable/satire on American Consumerism and our collective enslavement to petty bourgeois dreams of success, with a touch of "La Dolce Vita" tossed in for added subtext, with the lovely OSCAR-NOMINATED Connelly as Anita Ekberg, representing the impossible female ideal that will remain forever out of reach until our hero, Whalley's milquetoast Candide, renounces the evils of capitalism. Connelly's ride atop a coin-operated pony is Hughes' nod to Sylvia's romp through the fountain in Rome, and his oft-misunderstood casting of the Mulroneys are a post-modern riff on Fellini's Virgin Mary thread, although instead, the brothers embody a different Biblical allusion--to that of the parable of Cain and Abel. Sigh--I'll be defending this one until the end of my autumn years.

But oh, that white tank top...