What I Watched -- The Big Kahuna

As he so often does, C came into my office the other day to ask me if I had ever seen whichever movie was currently on TV.  This time, it was The Big Kahuna.  (He knows I like Kevin Spacey.)  I had not.  "I'm leaving for a meeting, but I'll leave it on in my office if you want to watch it."

He left and I forgot about our conversation until I had to go raid the supply room on the other side of the floor about an hour later.  C was still gone; the movie was still playing.  With my pile of post-it notes, pens, and binder clips, I sat down at the table to watch a few minutes.  For those of you who have seen it, the bit I saw was where Larry (Kevin Spacey) is laying into Bob (Peter Facinelli) for talking about Jesus at the sales meeting.

It was intriguing enough that I rented it so I could see the whole thing.  Not much more happens in the entire movie than in the clip I had seen in C's office.  It's a little bit like The Station Agent in that way - the movie is about the characters, not about the plot.  Because there is no plot, just a skeleton on which to hang the dialogue.  Here, there are two seasoned salesmen (Larry and Phil, played by Danny DeVito), and the greenhorn (Bob).  Bob happens to meet the target of this particular sales conference (and discusses Jesus with him).  Larry and Phil wait around for Bob's return after they send him out to see if he can close the deal.

That's it.  That's the whole story.  And even in terms of characters, there are really two scenes of note: one is the dinner conversation between Larry and Phil while Bob is away, and the other is the talk between Phil and Bob upon Bob's return. 

Bottom line: this movie is strange.  Unless you're a big Spacey or DeVito fan, you should probably skip it.  But if you are a fan of either of theirs, it's worth seeing, because it probably wouldn't have worked with anyone else.