mediocre

“The Temp” is a movie whose first 10 minutes wouldn’t get passed the scrutiny of #metoo and whose next 90 wouldn’t get passed the scrutiny of rational people. It stars Timothy Hutton as Peter, a marketing executive at a cookie company, and Lara Flynn Boyle as Kris, his temporary secretary. She proves herself a remarkable Girl Friday at first but “Child’s Play” director Tom Holland can’t hide that the movie wants her to be a sexual honey trap. Flynn Boyle has a smile that’s both sexual and devious and bedroom eyes to boot. That, plus close-ups of her legs and a quick peek down her blouse tempt Peter, but he’s generally a good guy trying to sell cookies and get back together with his wife and son. But when executives at the company start getting killed and Kris rises up the company ranks, he discovers she has much to hide. The film has been fashioned as sort of a soft-core male fantasy turned nightmare, sort of like “Fatal Attraction”, of a secretary who’s both sexy and a little bad but then it doesn’t follow through. It switches genres midway, denying us the seduction thriller for the cliches of the “killer in the…” one-Peter becomes more paranoid, several bloody scenes seem both out of place and silly, and there’s the proverbial scene where car breaks are cut. It’s cheap, exploitative, and overwrought- the fact it all takes place at a cookie company almost pushes it into spoof territory. The movie twists itself in knots to make a good mystery but in the end just leaves us still trying to piece it, and the characters (especially Kris- was she a killer?) together. Hutton and Boyle are good actors meant to suffer one-note characters, while the biggest slum job goes to Faye Dunaway, playing Peter’s bitchy boss. There’s sort of a B-movie laughability about this thing, but otherwise it’s just a by-the-numbers bore.