Terror Tuesday: The Temp (1993)

As Faye Dunaway's character Charlene Towne says, "In the 80's they just backstabbed you, but in the 90's, they do it with a smile." And it was true.

Although I paraphrased that quote, I can remember corporate America and witnessed first-hand how people were climbing their way to the top. I once trained a corporate temp and a week later, he disappeared and within a month was in a high paying permanent position.

Anyway, with a big takeover coming, cookie company Mrs. Appleby's is under the microscope and all of the employees are wondering what's to become of their jobs, including Peter Derns (Timothy Hutton) who's spent a lot of time at work, while neglecting his wife Sharon (Maura Tierney) and son Nathan (Denny Swanson) and is also being treated for paranoia. His divorce is still fresh, and he hopes to reconcile with Sharon.

With a demanding schedule and a strict deadline following an early morning meeting, Peter goes to his office where his assistant, Lance (Scott Coffey) is leaving since his wife has gone into labor. His abrupt departure has put more pressure on Peter to make the next day's noon deadline without any help.

After trying to pull an all nighter, Peter gets to work, still behind schedule, and finds Kris Bolin (Lara Flynn Boyle) sitting at Lance's desk. She tells him that she's his temporary assistant and while waiting, took it upon herself to straighten up the office and do a few other clerical things.

With her help, Peter meets the noon deadline with seconds remaining, much to the displeasure of his rival Jack Hartsell (Oliver Platt) who's also up for the same promotion as Peter.

Later that afternoon, Charlene has invited all of the executives and their assistants to a Secretary's Day luncheon and Jack freaks out when a wasp lands on the cake. Kris kills the wasp with her hand, and it's revealed that he's highly allergic to wasps, which could cause death if he's stung.

While Kris and Peter have a good working relationship, she wants more and tries to seduce him as much as she can, but he's not interested. And before her time is up, she suggests a new design for their cookie jar which will be more cost efficient than the one Peter pitched in the meeting.

Even though she's never met Lance, she's mad that he's returning to work, but Jack thinks he could use her in some capacity.

Lance returns to work but almost immediately has an accident with the shredder which brings Kris back to Peter and he gets mad at her for going behind his back to pitch the new jar to Charlene.

As executive bodies start to pile up, Kris climbs the corporate ladder at a fast pace, while sabotaging Peter's life. He tries to get rid of her, but she's been taken under Charlene's wing since the two went to the same school. But Peter doesn't buy her stories.

Once she leaves her office, he goes to snoop but is caught by Sara (Colleen Flynn) who's also suspicious of Kris.

As Peter does his own investigation, he finds out where Kris had last temped and goes to the bank where he questions some of the staff. He finds out that she had an affair with the boss and he recently passed away.

Peter is suspended, pending termination when he's accused of sharing a recipe with his friend Brad Monroe (Steven Weber) who works for a rival bakery. He also finds out that Kris had met with him to find out about job openings and once Sara is abruptly transferred to Michigan, Kris is yet again promoted.

This is one of the better movies of the '90's and something that I watch every now and then. It's also fun to match up the characters with my former co-workers.

One of the things that I really like about the movie is the office design at the beginning of the movie. I like how it has a hominess to it and when it's been redesigned, I didn't like the "modern" look. Where I used to work, they went with the open concept look and there were people that I didn't want to see!

If you're looking for a workplace thriller, this would be something good to watch, especially if you've had a bad day at work.