Swimming with Sharks

Une parfaite illustration du harcèlement moral, un peu exagérée, un peu caricaturée (quand même… non ? ça se passe comme ça à Hollywood ? quoique… allez savoir…) et carrément cynique sur la fin (mais quelle fin, nom d’un chien !). Kevin Spacey brille de mille feux et Michelle Forbes irradie de son charme ténébreux.Quant à Franck Whaley, excellent, il fait comme le bleu-bite : il ferme sa gueule et il enregistre. Ce film étonnant (mais aussi effrayant et drôle à la fois) a l’intelligence de ne pas sombrer dans un manichéisme réducteur : tous les personnages évoluent dans un gris pas très net. Et la morale de l’histoire (oui, il y en a une) est la suivante : l’ambition transforme les gens en vrais connards… ou en serpillères !

Not entirely what you'd expect from the promo art, this strange hybrid of chilling suspense and black comedy bears a surprisingly deep, developed cast of characters and a bitter, intense message about the origins of a corporate monster. Kevin Spacey is at his usual best as the pompous, demeaning studio executive with a finger in every pie, while journeyman Frank Whaley (Brett from Pulp Fiction) overplays the wide-eyed, naïve farmboy act as Spacey's hapless assistant on the verge of a breakdown. While early scenes hint that this is just another predictable, pull-for-the-little-man light comedy, the narrative's regular flashes forward in the timeline paint a larger, more sinister picture. When the dust settles, Spacey is revealed to be far more complicated and damaged than he lets on, Whaley has worked himself into a deep, dark pit of trouble and neither man is who they were at the outset. Bewildering at times due to the jolting changes in tone and atmosphere, it lingers with the viewer well after the credits have rolled.