The Associate

Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Dianne Wiest, Eli Wallach, Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth, Austin Pendleton, Lainie Kazan, George Martin, Zeljko Ivanek, Colleen Camp, Allison Janney, John Rothman
Directed by: Donald Petrie
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
1996

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Whoopi Goldberg) struggles to make it on her own on Wall Street, so she invents a male partner and suddenly, everyone wants to work with them.

Review:

Tim: The Associate is a tough movie to write about. It's a mid-90s dramedy that delivers a powerful, important message about racism and sexism, yet has some problematic components to it as well. I tried to view the movie through a 1996 lens, although I couldn't completely put my mindset back then (nor would I want to). I want to be fair to this movie, so I'd call it a decent film with a few major issues.

Let's start with the positives. I truly believe the movie delivers a message people need to hear. The entire story is about a black woman who is overlooked, passed over, discounted. This doesn't happen because her ideas are bad, it's because of her gender and race. It's hard to watch those scenes, especially because that kind of thing happens every single day, all across America. It was happening in 1996, and it's still happening as I write this in 2023. The movie takes aim at this, and through the (ludicrous) invention of a white, male partner, suddenly our protagonist's ideas are accepted, valued, and honored. That message is brilliant and something we need more of from Hollywood. For that reason, I really liked the film.

Unfortunately, you have to contrast that with the more problematic aspects of the film. Chiefly among them is Whoopi Goldberg in whiteface. Now, I think you have to draw a line between this and blackface. There's not anywhere near the same level of historical racism associated with whiteface. It's not used here to disparage Caucasians, it's used to make a powerful point about racism. Still, it's not a good look and it opens the film to criticisms of double standards and hypocrisy. This part of the film is pretty bad, but I think looking at it objectively within context, it's enough to hurt the movie, but not completely sink it. As I said, I still think this is a decent film.

Whoopi Goldberg gives a strong performance. You can tell she believed in the film's message and raises her performance to match that level of importance. Goldberg has good comedic timing and she's relatable in this role. Honestly, it's one of the best performances I've seen from Goldberg. She's definitely the star of the film and carries the movie on her back. A big reason why the movie works is Goldberg's effective performance. Dianne Wiest was good, too. I don't think the role fully leveraged her, but she worked well with Goldberg. I always love seeing Eli Wallach and he definitely made a big impression on the film. Tim Daly hit all the right notes as his character- you dislike him strongly, all due to Daly's effective work. Austin Pendleton adds a strong supporting performance, too. I really enjoyed him here and I wish he had a bit more to do. The rest of the cast all works well, but this is definitely Goldberg's film, with a nice assist from Wiest.

Outside of the film's important message, I thought the movie was at least mildly entertaining. There's a few peaks and valleys, but it's generally funny and the pacing is good. The whole concept is outlandish and so the film is hurt somewhat by the illogical plot. It's funny, but not very realistic. The script was fairly effective.

The Associate does a lot of things right, but it does suffer from a number of issues. This prevents it from being a "good" movie, which it absolutely should have been. Still, this is a decent 90s movie with a good message and is fairly entertaining. It could (and should) have been better, but it's not too bad at all. I enjoyed it more than I didn't.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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