IMDb > Bartleby (2001)
Bartleby
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Overview

User Rating:
6.3/10   1,034 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?

No change in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Jonathan Parker

Writers:

Herman Melville (story)
Jonathan Parker (screenplay) ...
more

Contact:

View company contact information for Bartleby on IMDbPro.

Genre:

Comedy | Drama more

Tagline:

I would prefer not to.

Plot:

A clueless boss has no idea what to do with his mundane office worker whose refusal of duties only gets worse each passing minute. full summary | add synopsis

Awards:

1 nomination more

NewsDesk:
(7 articles)

Review: (Untitled)
 (From Slackerwood. 8 November 2009, 8:30 AM, PST)

Interview: Jonathan Parker (Untitled)
 (From ioncinema. 20 October 2009)

User Comments:

Melville and Co-dependency more (36 total)


Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

David Paymer ... The Boss

Crispin Glover ... Bartleby

Glenne Headly ... Vivian
Maury Chaykin ... Ernest

Joe Piscopo ... Rocky

Seymour Cassel ... Frank Waxman
Carrie Snodgress ... Book Publisher

Dick Martin ... The Mayor
Greta Danielle Newgren ... Boss's Date

Ken Murakami ... Landlord
Josh Kornbluth ... Property Manager
Nick Scoggin ... Street Philosopher
Stoney Burke ... Soup Kitchen Server
Terry Allen Jones ... New Tenant
Stu Klitsner ... Professor Bum (as Stuart Klitsner)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:

Bartleby at the Office (USA) (working title)
more

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content.

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1 more

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Novato, California, USA more


Fun Stuff

Trivia:

Dick Martin's final acting performance. more

Goofs:

Continuity: When the boss's date is straddling him in his office, sometimes her hair is wrapped in a scarf and sometimes it's not. more

Quotes:

Rocky: Let me tell you something: It's the sensitive guy that gets the needy woman.
Ernie: Yeah, well it's the worm that gets the hooker.
more

Movie Connections:

Version of Bartleby (1976) more

Soundtrack:

Phantasie #3 In D Minor more


FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful.
Melville and Co-dependency, 9 August 2003
7/10
Author: B24 from Arizona

The film touches on some parts of the original story very aptly. I thought the Chaykin-Piscopo match was very close indeed to what Melville intended. As to Crispin Glover, no other movie actor of his stature is creepy enough and palpably slow-witted enough to fit the role -- not even the younger editions of a Brando or Hopper or Walken, who would overact monstrously in one form or another.

Most viewers seem to surrender to the misconception that the story is all about Bartleby. In fact, the narrator undergoes the most profound change within its context. And in that sense this film version fails because the Paymer character is made out to be a complete sap, rather than the seriously introspective and well-educated man of the original.

No one in 1853 knew anything of co-dependency in relation to addictions and other mental disorders, but Melville was prescient in that regard. The apparent despondency of Bartleby (characterized in the original as late of the Dead Letter Office) has no bounds, but it is in his employer's character we are led to see that this relatively new concept involving an excess of identification with the subject person can result in similar debilitation on the part of the caregiver.

It falls as well into the category of feature-length films based on short stories destroyed by too much padding and extraneous activity we used to call "stage business." It should be as spare as the slowly emptying mind of Bartleby himself.

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more (36 total)

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Bartleby (2001)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Soundtrack - Piano Songs lancespub
Should I see it? stephanie789456
bartleby metaphors! terrenceplacks
Was anyone paying attention... gloverlover
I would comment on this film. maj0
What? No Remake? bernie-122
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