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"Nine to Five" is a good-hearted, simple-minded comedy that will win a place in film history, I suspect, primarily because it contains the movie debut of Dolly Parton . She is, on the basis of this one film, a natural-born movie star, a performer who holds our attention so easily that it's hard to believe it's her first film.

There have been other debuts this unmistakable; you could name Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Travolta . And what you'd be talking about in each case would not necessarily be a great dramatic performance in an important movie. You'd be talking about a quality of presence, a personal life force that seems to take over the screen.

"Nine to Five" is only a fairly successful comedy. It has some very funny moments, and then it has some major ingredients that don't work, including some of its fantasy sequences. But then it also has Dolly Parton. And she contains so much energy, so much life and unstudied natural exuberance that watching her do anything in this movie is a pleasure. Because there have been so many Dolly Parton jokes (and doubtless will be so many more), I had better say that I'm not referring to her sex appeal or chest measurements. Indeed, she hardly seems to exist as a sexual being in this movie. She exists on another plane, as Monroe did: She is a center of life on the screen.

But excuse me for a moment while I regain my composure. "Nine to Five" itself is pleasant entertainment, and I liked it, despite its uneven qualities and a plot that's almost too preposterous for the material. The movie exists in the tradition of 1940s screwball comedies. It's about improbable events happening to people who are comic caricatures of their types, and, like those '40s movies, It also has a dash of social commentary.

The message in this case has, to do with women's liberation and, specifically, with the role of women in large corporate offices. Jane Fonda , Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton all work in the same office. Tomlin is the efficient office manager. Fonda is the newcomer, trying out her first job after a divorce. Parton is the boss's secretary, and everybody in the office thinks she's having an affair with the boss. So the other women won't speak to her.

The villain is the boss himself. Played by Dabney Coleman (of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"), he's a self-righteous prig with a great and sincere lust for Dolly Parton. She's having none of it. After the movie introduces a few social issues (day care, staggered work hours, equal pay, merit promotion), the movie develops into a bizarre plot to kidnap Coleman in an attempt to win equal rights. He winds up swinging from the ceiling of his bedroom, attached by wire to a garage-door opener. Serves him right, the M.C.P.

This whole kidnapping sequence moves so far toward unrestrained farce that it damages the movie's marginally plausible opening scenes. But perhaps we don't really care. We learn right away that this is deliberately a lightweight film, despite its superstructure of social significance. And, making the necessary concessions, we simply enjoy it.

What I enjoyed most, as you have already guessed, was Dolly Parton. Is she an actress? Yes, definitely, I'd say, although I am not at all sure how wide a range of roles she might be able to play. She's perfect for this one - which was, of course, custom-made for her. But watch her in the scenes where she's not speaking, where the action is elsewhere on the screen. She's always in character, always reacting, always generating so much energy we expect her to fly apart. There's a scene on a hospital bench, for example, where Tomlin is convinced she's poisoned the boss, and Fonda is consoling her. Watch Dolly. She's bouncing in and out, irrepressibly.

What is involved here is probably something other than "acting." It has to do with what Bernard Shaw called the "life force," that dynamo of energy that some people seem to possess so bountifully. Dolly Parton on the screen simply seems to be having a great time, ready to sweep everyone else up in her enthusiasm, her concern, her energy. It's some show.

Roger Ebert reviews movies on the Channel 5 news at 10 p.m. Thursday, Sunday and Monday.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Nine to Five (1980)

110 minutes

Sterling Hayden as Tinsworthy

Elizabeth Wilson as Roz

Lily Tomlin as Violet Newstead

Dolly Parton as Doralee Rhodes

Jane Fonda as Judy Bernly

Dabney Coleman as Franklin Hart Jr.

Directed by

• Colin Higgins

Photographed by

• Reynaldo Villalobos
• Richard Hashimoto

Screenplay by

• Patricia Resnick

Produced by

• Bruce Gilbert
• Charles Fox

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1980, Comedy, 1h 50m

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Critics Consensus

It might not be much of a way to make a living, but 9 to 5 is a wonderfully cast comedy that makes some sharp points about gender roles in the workplace. Read critic reviews

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9 to 5   photos.

Office satire about three female secretaries who decide to get revenge on their tyrannical, sexist boss by abducting him and running the business themselves. The trio, one of whom has been passed over for promotion because she is a woman, spend a night together having drug-induced fantasies of killing the slave-driving chauvinist. One of them panics the following day when she suspects she really has poisoned the tyrant.

Genre: Comedy

Original Language: English

Director: Colin Higgins

Writer: Colin Higgins

Release Date (Theaters): Dec 19, 1980  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Nov 25, 2015

Runtime: 1h 50m

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox, IPC Films

Cast & Crew

Judy Bernly

Lily Tomlin

Violet Newstead

Dolly Parton

Doralee Rhodes

Dabney Coleman

Franklin M. Hart Jr.

Sterling Hayden

Russell Tinsworthy

Elizabeth Wilson

Henry Jones

Lawrence Pressman

Dick Bernly

Colin Higgins

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Critic Reviews for 9 to 5

Audience reviews for 9 to 5.

With The Other Woman coming out last year, and being a pretty bad movie at that, I can sense that this movie was a very obvious inspiration on that. Of course there's narrative differences, the women in the Other Woman are trying to get revenge on this guy who's sleeping with all of them behind the other's backs, whereas this film sees the women get revenge on their boss for being a sexist and ignorant idiot. The Other Woman, in spite of pretending it's all about female empowerment, was probably as sexist as they got to be honest. At the very least this film is about women being treated equally in the workplace, receiving the same pay as the men do for the same work. So even with the fact that this movie is almost 40 years old, it's as relevant as ever and will remain relevant as long as women keep getting treated unfairly for X or Y reason. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see a remake one of these days. I think a sequel, while a good idea, would probably not be as successful. I think a mixture of the two would work well. With the three women in this film all raising daughters who are facing the same problems they faced in this movie. I think that'd work well and it would combine both elements. I thought this was a good movie really, with some really talented women as the leads in this film. Kinda surprising how good Dolly Parton was considering that this was her first major acting role. I don't wanna say she's a natural but she made the transition from singer to actress better than about 95% of people who've tried. She's just got a very charismatic presence and a great voice. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are both great here as well. So the film was pretty much perfectly cast as it relates to the leads. Of course, no story about a sexist, egotistical pig is complete without casting someone detestable in the role that knows how to play off of the three leads. Dabney Coleman is absolutely excellent here and he knows how to play this role to perfection. Good heroines are nothing without an equally dastardly villain to play off of. As I mentioned, all the lead roles in the film are perfectly cast and I cannot complain about that one bit. The writing is also good but, unsurprisingly, some of the dialogue is a little outdated. Which is understandable considering this movie was released in 1980, eight years before I was born. I thought the movie was funny, with the comedic highlight easily being the sequences where the women fantasize about what they would do to their boss if they had the chance. Dolly Parton's character had the best one of these, in my opinion. The film does have its very silly and sitcom-y moments, like everything that happens in the hospital after Lily's character believes she has accidentally poisoned her boss and caused his death. Lily Tomlin is great here and I think she sort of alleviates the silliness of it all. The movie does drag quite a bit after this hospital sequence and I think it definitely hurts the film. While overall I thought the film was fun, it certainly dragged heavily before they confined the villain to his house and the women showed that they can run a more effective office than the 'boss' can. Not much else to say really. This is still a very socially relevant film, in spite of all its silliness, it does bring to light some of the unfairness women face in the workplace, on top of everything else they have to go through, and it's the type of movie that would benefit from a modern update. Still this is a good and fun movie to watch, even if it is a little outdated. Solid Netflix watch.

You know, I like the mash up of Fonda, Tomlin, and Parton I just wish the movie was as likable as they are.

I liked this a lot!! This is the embodiment of a fabulously cheesy but awesome 80's movie. I also have a new-found love for Dolly Parton.

A fabulous chick flick! It's very funny, and the actresses are fantastic. The story is funny, and realistic too. I highly recommend this one.

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Tuesday Blue hails from the Midwest, spent eight years living…

9 to 5 , the 1980 film starring Lily Tomlin , Jane Fonda , and Dolly Parton , is a great film about women in business taking charge in a male-dominated world by joining forces. The content of the film is surprisingly relevant in 2019 with its message that by working together rather than judging each other, women can make big moves and defeat men in power who are trying to keep them down.

Superstar Trio

9 to 5  is an ICONIC movie I should have seen years ago. Though this film came out in 1980, its message is still, surprisingly and depressingly, relevant today. Just to be clear, this is 39 years after its release! Tomlin is Violet Newstead, the office supervisor at Consolidated Companies and Parton is Doralee Rhodes, the secretary to misogynistic boss Franklin Hart, Jr. ( Dabney Coleman ). Franklin treats Doralee as a sex object so boldly that others in the office believe she is having an affair with her married employer.

Enter Jane Fonda as Judy Bernly, a woman whose husband has just left her. She’s clueless about work and learning the tricks to working in an office (including navigating the largest copier I’ve ever seen), leading to several physically comical actions. Violet, Doralee, and Judy don’t initially hit it off with each other. They have three distinct personalities – as they should considering the talent behind these characters!

Joining Forces

The trio are separately inspired by their boss to do something about his behavior: Violet is upset that he’s given a promotion to an unqualified man over her highly qualified self, Doralee is upset to learn that he was hoping to sleep with her, and Judy – though new – is upset to hear an employee with longevity was fired. The three bond over describing the ways in which they would take revenge on Franklin. An accident the following day gives them an unexpected opening to take over the office which includes hospital, kidnapping, and detective hijinks.

Violet, Judy, and Doralee lead the office to equal pay, on-site daycare, and even help an alcoholic employee through a work-sponsored rehab program in Franklin’s absence. Upon his return he attempts to lay claim to boosting office moral through these new policies. Ultimately the women win out and we see their accomplishments over the credits including Doralee’s journey to become a country singer.

Relevancy Today

The story of Violet, Doralee, and Judy is not unfamiliar nor uncommon today – especially when it comes to the entertainment industry. It is a shame that in 2019 women and minorities are still incredibly underrepresented in this industry, numerous films still fail the Bechdel Test, and teams frequently led by male producers use the “If there were women interested in these roles we would hire them” excuse as though there aren’t qualified female directors, producers, or cinematographers (as well as the rest of crew!) vying for work in this industry.

Women in the film and television industry have job boards and community organizations like Women Make Movies, Women in Media, New York Women in Film & Television, to name a few. These are organizations built for women, by women to promote female-centric projects and productions while posting job opportunities in an effort to provide more opportunities to women in the industry. In a perfect world, these organizations wouldn’t need to exist because employment opportunities would equally vet applicants based on experience. There are numerous examples of men being given big opportunities though technically unqualified (see: Drew Pearce as director for Hotel Artemis with prior experience being a 14-minute short and a handful of Funny or Die videos, see also: Robert Stromberg who had extensive VFX but no directing experience prior to Maleficent ) and few given to women who are qualified.

Aside from the sexism women face in the entertainment industry regarding obtaining employment, hired women in-front-of and behind-the-camera are often faced with inappropriate behavior including disrespectful comments, persistent come-ons, and the even more atrocious – sexual assault. There are plenty of Franklin Harts around today and while they are slowly being weeded out – often after detailed reports come out – they still take up places where the power they yield can cause harm.

9 To 5: Conclusion

Perhaps, rather than being surprised and depressed by its relevance, I should be more surprised that 9 to 5 was even made and released in 1980 considering its subject matter. It’s not likely that a film (that spawned a five-season television show!) with such high-profile talent and visibility would have discussed women in the workplace with such humor and accuracy without Jane Fonda or her production company at the time, IPC Films. The idea came to Fonda after hearing stories by female office workers who were members of a female-centric union for women in the office. The story was initially conceptualized as a drama, however Fonda found that it was coming off “too preachy” and, as a comedy, the film found firm footing.

9 to 5 has laughs from beginning to end, a catchy theme song, clever editing techniques, and inspirational characters who prove that we’re better united than divided. If you haven’t already seen 9 to 5 (as I wish I had!) you’re missing out and I highly recommend giving this female-centric comedy a shot and revel in the inspiration of women taking control of their destinies!

Have you seen 9 to 5? What do you think about the story and its relevancy today? Let us know in the comments below! 

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Tuesday Blue hails from the Midwest, spent eight years living on the West Coast, and now resides in New York City. She earned her degree in film production from Portland State University and currently works as a freelance filmmaker. In addition to creating content she enjoys watching, analyzing, and writing about film and television!

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Jane Fonda (Judy Bernly) Lily Tomlin (Violet Newstead) Dolly Parton (Doralee Rhodes) Dabney Coleman (Franklin Hart, Jr.) Sterling Hayden (Tinsworthy) Elizabeth Wilson (Roz) Henry Jones (Hinkle) Lawrence Pressman (Dick) Marian Mercer (Missy Hart) Renn Woods (Barbara) Norma Donaldson (Betty) Roxanna Bonilla-Giannini (Maria) Peggy Pope (Margaret) Richard Stahl (Meade) Ray Vitte (Eddie) Edward Marshall (Bob Enright) Alan Haufrect (Chuck Strell) Earl Boen (Perkins)

Colin Higgins

Three female employees of a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot find a way to turn the tables on him.

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Metacritic reviews

• 80 Variety Variety Anyone who has ever worked in an office will be able to identify with the antics in Nine to Five. Although it can probably be argued that Patricia Resnick and director Colin Higgins' script [from a story by Resnick] at times borders on the inane, the bottom line is that this picture is a lot of fun.
• 75 Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Nine to Five is a good-hearted, simple-minded comedy that will win a place in film history, I suspect, primarily because it contains the movie debut of Dolly Parton. She is, on the basis of this one film, a natural-born movie star, a performer who holds our attention so easily that it's hard to believe it's her first film.
• 70 The New Yorker Pauline Kael The New Yorker Pauline Kael Tomlin confirms herself as a star whenever she gets the material, and Dolly Parton's dolliness is very winning, but it's easy to forget that Jane Fonda is around - she seems to get lost in the woodwork. The director, Colin Higgins, is a young fossil who sets up flaccid, hand-me-down gags as if they were hilarious, and damned if the audience doesn't laugh.
• 67 The A.V. Club Noel Murray The A.V. Club Noel Murray The movie is surprisingly smart about the politics of the glass ceiling, which keeps Tomlin in a pink-collar supervisor position while every man she trains gets promoted past her. The way Coleman asserts his masculinity with phrases like "cut the balls off the competition," and the way our heroic trio works together to sculpt a worker's paradise—complete with flex-time and day-care facilities—serves as an effective summary of the era's hot-button issues.
• 63 Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel Nine to Five is a film full or surprises - some pleasant, other disappointing. The most pleasant surprise is the appearance of Dolly Parton, who with this one film establishes herself as a thoroughly engaging movie star. The biggest disappointment is that this Jane Fonda comedy about a trio of secretaries out to get their boss doesn't have more bite. [19 Dec 1980, p.2-1]
• 60 TV Guide Magazine TV Guide Magazine Lots of laughs, little sense, and pure fantasy. Produced by Fonda's company, NINE TO FIVE is an amusing way to spend 110 minutes, but hardly memorable.
• 50 Time Out London Time Out London Despite an excellent and promising cast, this Hollywood attempt at a mainstream feminist comedy is flabby and bland...Complacent, and even worse, not very funny, despite the efforts of the ever-excellent Tomlin.
• 40 The New York Times Vincent Canby The New York Times Vincent Canby The three actresses make an attractive team, but neither the screenplay, by Colin Higgins and Patricia Resnick, nor the director, Mr. Higgins, uses them very effectively. It's clearly a movie that began as someone's bright idea, which then went into production before anyone had time to give it a well-defined personality.
• 40 Washington Post Washington Post For all the trouble taken, Nine to Five comes out as a very ordinary situation comedy about three bubble heads seeking revenge on a boss who is a big old meanie. The justice of the cause, the abilities of the actresses, the intrinsic interest of the scene -- these are all lost in the frantic efforts to cram in satire, social commentary, slapstick and sexual oppression. There is such a thing as working too hard. [19 Dec 1980, p.19]
• 30 Washington Post Gary Arnold Washington Post Gary Arnold The new facetious depressant from Colin Higgins -- the screenwriter and now director who has parlayed "Harold and Maude," "The Silver Streak" and "Foul Play" into one of the more baffling winning streaks on record -- runs a merely weak comic premise into the ground with coarse, laborious execution. [19 Dec 1980, p.E1]
• See all 12 reviews on Metacritic.com
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I'm a published poet, travel writer, and "vintage" pop culture…

Let’s face it.   Forty year anniversaries aren’t as popular as twenty-five or fifty.   But for a 1980 movie whose stars are still not only performing in showbiz, but downright thriving – why skimp on the celebratory coffee and Skinny & Sweet? Why not take a few moments to cheer?

Colin Higgins ‘ 9 to 5 is a 1980 feminist hootenanny.   It has something important to say about gender inequality in the workplace, and does so in a hilariously fun, clever way.   The plot:   Three mistreated female office workers fantasize about bumpin’ off their “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” male boss. But, one lady almost goes through with her fantasy – albeit by accident.

Violet, played by the superb Lily Tomlin, accidentally adds rat poison instead of Skinny & Sweet artificial sweetener to her boss’s coffee.   (Per Violet – “The boxes are identical except for the skull and crossbones.”)   To avoid arrest, Violet and her two co-workers, Judy and Doralee, played by legends Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton respectively, abduct their boss and hold him captive for weeks as they learn that not only is he a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” to his female counterparts, but he’s actually been stealing from the company and now they have to prove it.   Big gulp.   That’s one complicated comedy.

The blackmail plan to spare these ladies from jail is hatched.  A nd note that all three ladies are in deep at this point.   Aside from the rat poison which originally only put Violet in the hot seat, Doralee’s in deep, too; she ties up their boss, Mr. Hart, with telephone cord in his office.   And then Judy almost shoots Mr. Hart, or as Doralee would say, Judy was “acting like he was first prize at a turkey shoot!”   Funny stuff.   The abduction scene is side-splittingly hilarious, as these three kind-hearted ladies are clearly out of their element.   Being bad?   As the saying goes – “There’s a first time for everything.”    

In the end, after a few cheeky plot twists and turns, all’s well that ends well.  T hough the ladies don’t prove Mr. Hart an embezzler (as he beats them to the chase, covering his illegal activity) it doesn’t matter.   Chairman Tinsworthy, so impressed by Mr. Hart’s recent positive job performance and enhancements to his department (changes which the ladies actually made), forcibly transfers Mr. Hart to their Brazilian office.  M aybe he can work some “magic” down there.  I t’s the wilds of the Amazon for this despicable character.   Closing credits for the movie reveal Mr. Hart gets abducted yet again – this time by a tribe of Amazons.   Most would say “just desserts” for this rotten boss.

And as for Violet, Judy, and Doralee?   Violet is promoted to Mr. Hart’s position.  J udy marries the Xerox copier representative, and Doralee leaves the company to become a country-western singer.   Congrats to them!  

Best Actress Academy Award winner Jane Fonda ( Klute , 1971, and Coming Home , 1978) brought 9 to 5 to the silver screen in 1980, and the world can thank her.  Daughter  of master actor Henry Fonda from the Golden Age of cinema , Jane Fonda is worthy of accolades.   9 to 5 was her chipper little brain-child.   And with great folks behind the camera (director, screenwriter, etc.) to help bring her vision to life, Jane Fonda created a unique mix of social conscience, comedy, and plain old-fashioned “great film-making.”   She was decades ahead of American society in discussing the prickly issue of gender inequality in the workplace.   Gender inequality isn’t funny in 1980 or in 2020, and for her to champion making this film, tackle this tough topic with humor meanwhile not sacrifice its weight – is skillful and commendable.        

Then there’s Lily Tomlin.   No slouch to comedy herself, Lily Tomlin first gained fame on TV’s lively variety show Laugh-In (1969-1973).   Known for her wicked imagination, she created legendary characters like little five-year-old Edith Ann and tough-nut telephone operator Ernestine.   Lily Tomlin even won a Tony Award for her one-woman Broadway show ( The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe , 1985).   And since 2015, she and Jane Fonda, longtime buddies from 9 to 5 , have been starring in the Netflix comedy sitcom Grace and Frankie .   Both in their eighties, it’s a pleasure to watch them tear down the house of age-related prejudices.   Why stop only at gender inequality in the workplace?

Which brings the viewer to the phrase “pink-collar ghetto” – possibly the most important (and funny) line of 9 to 5 .  W hat does it mean anyway?   Pink-collar ghetto was a term first used in the 1970s to denote any job that would typically be “relegated” to a female – often school teacher, nurse, or secretary (today, better known as the politically-correct term of “administrative assistant”).   These jobs were of lower seniority than men, offered lowered pay, and most often no upward mobility.   Thus, women in these positions often felt stigmatized, marginalized, disenfranchised, and stymied.  A ll heavy baggage.

These women weren’t white-collar (a term referencing high-paying positions historically belonging to men).   Nor were these ladies blue-collar (referencing manual labor positions also historically belonging to men).   These women equated their jobs to being stuck in a ghetto, but not just any ghetto – a pink one.   “Pink-collar ghetto” is a powerful visual – and Lily Tomlin delivers this line both smartly and comically.   Squished in at Charlie’s bar between her new pals Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, she says – “Face it, ladies, we are in a pink-collar ghetto.” Hilarious.  T ragic.   1980 true.

We then complete this feminist trio with Dolly Parton in her big-screen debut.   9  to 5 was Dolly Parton’s very first movie, and it’s the vehicle that catapulted her into the bright lights of Hollywood – after finding unbelievably bright fame as country-western singer-turned TV star on The Porter Wagoner Show (1967-1975).

Back in the day, Dolly Parton was in the royal ranks of singers Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand.   In 9 to 5 , she brings that “star” factor.   She also brings a touch of welcome brown suede and fringe – not to mention her signature bright blonde wigs.   Importantly, her acting is pitch-perfect.   As a viewer, you find it hard to believe it’s her first movie.   Today, Dolly Parton still has an exceptionally strong singing career, and does the occasional movie and television special.  S he even has her beloved hometown amusement park, which she built back in the 1980s – appropriately called Dollywood.

By definition, 9 to 5 is a farce.  I t’s over-the-top.   It’s not entirely on the “realistic” level.   This film could have easily drifted into a serious PSA (public service announcement) on women’s rights. Instead, it launches full-steam ahead into lovable shenanigans.   After all, kidnapping one’s boss is not light fare – it’s pretty criminal.  B ut 9 to 5 pulls it off.  S o much so that most viewers are probably cheering these three kidnappers on.

This is where the brilliant casting of 9 to 5 becomes apparent.   These are three different performers coming from vastly different backgrounds, each bringing her unique brand of magic. They come together to form the ultimate on-screen “power-chick-clique.”

Uber-talented Academy Award winner Jane Fonda plays the dowdy divorcée Judy to perfection.   Comedic powerhouse Lily Tomlin shines as Violet in her “bumpin’ off the boss” fantasy – which incidentally lands her smack-dab between some adorable animated woodland creatures.   (Yes, hidden gem – 9 to 5 boasts brief animation.)   And singer Dolly Parton gives Doralee sass, and a touch of down-home country class.   Then add in Dabney Coleman as repugnant boss Mr. Hart, and Elizabeth Wilson as office-gossip Roz, and 9 to 5 ’s supporting cast shines, too.          

The result is a movie that feels like a feast.  E very shot is a veritable smorgasbord – whether it’s dialogue, a character’s facial expression, or even art direction, and costuming.   It’s possible to watch this movie a dozen times and still find something new you hadn’t seen before.

Case in point: During Violet’s “bumpin’ off the boss” fantasy which includes animated characters, watch the “knitting” bunny.   It starts out with a small piece of knitwear.  B ut by the time Mr. Hart is catapulted out his office window, thus meeting his demise – this bunny has knitted a big grey “gravestone” with the initials R.I.P.   (rest in peace).   No doubt for Mr. Hart.   Giggle-worthy?   Absolutely.   But easy to miss?   Yes.   Watch 9 to 5 with hawk-eyes.   It has both “big” and “little” comedic jewels.

One Fine Morning (2022) Review: Thoughtful, Astute, Intimate

9 to 5 also has a stellar theme song – fittingly called 9 to 5. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, it was a huge hit on both pop and country charts back in the early 1980s.   Written and sung by Dolly Parton herself, it’s one of her all-time top hits – and has become a “working-class” anthem across the USA.   It’s as relatable a song-theme as love and heartbreak.

But if bolting back from Memory Lane and revisioning 9 to 5 for the year 2020, it’s hard to say how it would fare.   Who would be cast?   And where would it take place?   Maybe it could star a talented trio of TV sitcom comics like 2016’s Ghostbusters remake (Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Melissa McCarthy).   And maybe it would be set in an aircraft manufacturing plant to showcase the modern 2020 woman – “out of the secretary seat” and “into the mechanical engineering cockpit.”   All intriguing possibilities.

Still, the legacy of 9 to 5 lies in its novelty.   For likely many 1980 moviegoers, it was the first time they glimpsed a “working woman” struggling to make her way up the “corporate ladder.”   As mentioned, as a school teacher or nurse, upward mobility wasn’t really present.   For instance, a teacher or nurse received a degree in her specific field, and most stayed in her position for life.   Upward mobility wasn’t part of the equation.   This is still often the case for these roles today.

But a secretary?   Not quite the same. Women, like 9 to 5 ’s Violet, could join a company right after high school, learn about the company, work her tail off, excel and take on new tasks, and even “unofficially” lead and become indispensable to both the business and her colleagues.   A promotion from time to time would then absolutely be warranted – and a change in job title to reflect the added responsibilities.  

But as 9 to 5 shows , the corporate world isn’t always fair.   Mr. Hart discloses the real reason Violet is passed up for promotion by a man who she trained and has five years seniority over – “Clients would rather deal with men when it comes to figures” (money).   Ouch.  I t’s hard to envision 2020 audiences not flying straight into frustration or even boredom with this premise.   Frustration at the fact that this type of negative treatment of women still exists.   9 to 5 gave moviegoers a glimpse into something “new” in 1980 .   Even if updating to modern-day comediennes and changing the job title to mechanical engineer, the modern moviegoers’ response might be tepid (whether fair or unfair).

9 to 5 is one of those “lightning in a bottle” films.   It had all the right dazzling ingredients, and, very importantly, was released at the right time.   And even if the topic of gender inequality in the workplace is still unfortunately relevant in 2020, this movie provides a release-valve.   It lets the viewer know that there can still be laughter within pain.   There can also be beloved friends (smart, fun, and raucously imaginative!) to help you through a bad work-day.   As the saying goes – “We’re all in this together.”

For fans of Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton, 9 to 5 is a “must-see.”   You won’t be disappointed.   For non-fans, it’s also worth a watch.   You get to witness these three superstars hamming it up forty years ago – alongside old-fashioned Xerox copiers and paper rolodexes (small typed or handwritten “contact” cards). Who knows. You might even become a “converted” fan of these actresses.   If so, you’ll have a ton of excellent movies to get caught up on since 1980.   These ladies have been busy.   They were dynamite back then, as they still are today.

Where to Watch: Tubi (free)

I'm a published poet, travel writer, and "vintage" pop culture blogger. I love movies, and especially those dusty old classics. I "heart" the rich history of film.

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Despite an excellent and promising cast, this Hollywood attempt at a mainstream feminist comedy is flabby and bland. Fonda is the new secretary in the office, Tomlin and Parton are the veterans who teach her to cope with and combat chauvinistic male oppression, incarnated by embezzling boss Coleman. As one might expect, the three club together in a plot to exact revenge, but as soon as their plans get underway, the film degenerates still further into toothless satire and wish-fulfilment slapstick (notably a fantasy involving Coleman's death). And the climax simply underlines the film's lack of courage in its convictions: the trio's tangle of problems are resolved (happily, of course) by a man. Complacent, and even worse, not very funny, despite the efforts of the ever-excellent Tomlin.

Release Details

• Duration: 109 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Colin Higgins
• Screenwriter: Colin Higgins, Patricia Resnick
• Lily Tomlin
• Dolly Parton
• Dabney Coleman
• Sterling Hayden
• Elizabeth Wilson
• Henry Jones
• Lawrence Pressman

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SCARED STIFF REVIEWS

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9 to 5 (1980) Movie Review

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By Melissa Antoinette Garza

If there is a woman alive who hasn’t had to deal with a barrage of idiocy online from alpha-male morons, who long for the days of female servitude, I haven’t met her.  I envy her, but I haven’t met her. To cleanse myself of the latest douche-o-rama, I decided to venture into a film with a likeable sexist and more importantly 3 badass feminine heroes who take the misogynistic goof down with ease.

The film opens with Judy (Jane Fonda) jumping into the job market for the first time. She’s recently divorced and lands an office job where she is shown the ropes by widow Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin). Violet knows the place like the back-of-her-hand and has been there for years. She’s in line for a promotion, but is denied because her horrible boss Franklin Hart Jr. (Dabney Coleman) wants a man in the position. Making matters worse, Violet not only trained the man who was given her job, but also trained Franklin when he first came to the company.

When Violet brings Judy in to meet Franklin, he’s his normal dick self. He makes some lewd remarks regarding Judy’s looks and then forces Violet to buy his “wife” a present. It is only later that Violet finds out the gift wasn’t for Franklin’s wife, but instead his secretary and suspected mistress Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton).

Doralee is my favorite. She’s sweet, tough and  happily  married! She works hard and is NOT sleeping with Hart! She always thwarts his advances, but the office gossip persists and Franklin encourages it. She hasn’t a clue why everyone is so despicable toward her, but learns when Violet gets angry and spills it.

After learning she was turned down for another promotion, Violet says in front of DoraLee that she’s his mistress. Doralee is horrified by the allegation. After telling Franklin off, she takes the rest of the day off and hits the bar with Violet. Judy also leaves when she finds out a co-worker was wrongfully terminated and gets drinks with them.

The three women immediately bond and decide to go smoke some weed over Doralee’s house. There each one has a fantasy about how they would get rid of Hart.

Judy imagines the entire office hunting him down. Violet sees herself as Snow White poisoning him and throwing him out the window. Lastly, Doralee pictures herself as a boss who hilariously sexually harasses a shy Hart and then lassos him like a cowgirl.

The net day, Violet accidentally uses rat poison instead of sweetener in Hart’s coffee thus setting off a chain of events that mirrors each fantasy. They initially think they’ve killed him, but when he arrives at work the next day a sigh of relief overtakes them all. It’s short-lived when kiss-ass Roz (Elizabeth Wilson) blabs to Hart after spying on the women in the bathroom. She learns and tells everything.

Hart calls Doralee in and says he’ll forget about the attempted murder if she sleeps with him.  Doralee is portrayed by Dolly Parton! Do you think that’s going to fly? Hell TO THE No!  That badass Goddess ties that motherfucker down. I love Dolly! I love her so goddamn much!

Initially, when everyone is mean to Doralee and she talks to her husband, she’s absolutely adorable. I’ve worked in an office for years and I know how tedious gossip can be. It’s so nice to come home and have a partner put things in perspective. I love that scene.

After Dolly ties her bitch boss up, she tells Judy to watch him while she runs to get Violet. Judy starts off the softest. She actually unties Hart believing him to be injured. When he gets up though, she does grab Doralee’s gun from her purse and shoots at him. It’s awesome. It’s so hilarious!

Violet and Doralee run over hearing the gun shots. Fearing prison, they kidnap him and store him at his house. With Hart out of the way and Doralee knowing how to sign his name, the women start making dramatic changes at work to better the environment and give more to the employees.

All three women ,find themselves when they take over. Violet turns the office into the place she always knew it could be. Doralee clears her name and makes Hart the fool in the process. Lastly, Judy finds her voice and footing both at work and with her sleazeball ex.

This is a classic. Recently, Dolly was on THE TONIGHT SHOW and mentioned a sequel. I can’t wait. The entire cast is fantastic.

Dabney Coleman is absolutely terrific in this. I love him and here he was a comedic genius. If not for hating him so much, the evolution of the women would not have impacted the viewer as much.

Of course, the women run the show and do so marvelously. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton are fabulous together. Their mutual chemistry made for a genuine and enjoyable watch. The story of their blossoming friendship is done in such a spectacular and hilarious manner. This was a movie about female empowerment, taking down the man and beating down doors;  but it isn’t  heavy. Instead, it’s laughs  from start-to-finish.  One can only hope that the sequel brings back this magic.

Scared Stiff Rating: 9/10

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Is 9 to 5 really a feminist movie?

The BFI says it is, but the claim doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. And from Thelma & Louise to The First Wives Club, it’s not the only film that pulls its feminist punches

N ever let it be said that the British Film Institute doesn’t have a sense of humour. A three-month-long comedy season starts at BFI Southbank on Monday and runs until the end of January, showcasing everything from spoofs to screwball, sitcoms to slapstick. And the BFI has got the season off to a hilarious start by playing a practical joke on its audience: it has given the 1980 workplace farce 9 to 5 an extended run, proclaiming it “a classic feminist comedy” . You guys! You kill me.

It has to be a gag, right? Anyone who has seen 9 to 5 will know that the film bears the same relationship to feminism that Jurassic Park does to palaeontology. (We could quibble with the words “classic” and “comedy”, too, but we would be here all day.) It stars Jane Fonda , Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin as office workers who take comic revenge on their leering, chauvinistic boss (Dabney Coleman). For Fonda, who helped generate the project through her own production company, it was one of a series of films (Coming Home, The China Syndrome) in which she played a previously oblivious woman newly politicised by crisis. Her character was reset at the start of each movie so that audiences could watch her undergo the same awakening all over again in a variety of settings.

In 9 to 5, she ditched her usually earnest persona for comedy of the broadest possible kind. Pauline Kael, the mighty film critic of the New Yorker, was not impressed. She quibbled with the picture’s comic logic (“When Jane Fonda is defeated by a Xerox machine, it’s not enough that she is made to look a ninny – the Xerox machine defeats her by doing things a Xerox machine can’t do”) and its questionable shots of Parton’s body. Most of all she wondered why it betrayed its own message. Singling out the moment when Parton threatens to take a handgun and turn the boss “from a rooster to a hen with one shot”, Kael wrote: “Didn’t any of the feminists involved with this project register that a castrated rooster is a capon, not a hen, and that this joke represents the most insulting and sexist view of women?”

The cartoonish approach of 9 to 5 reduces the realities of workplace sexism and harassment to the level of the innocuous. The boss is no more than a stock Carry On buffoon, and the movie has so little faith in its premise that it makes him an embezzler as well as a creep; clearly, the film-makers don’t believe that his habit of groping and belittling female employees is sufficient on its own to qualify him as a villain. Still, it’s not quite as dodgy as the director Colin Higgins’s followup, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a jolly musical that argues that prostitution is good, wholesome fun with no apparent downside. Pretty Woman looks like the SCUM Manifesto by comparison.

The reduction of feminism to caricature in 9 to 5 paid off at the box-office, as it has done in subsequent examples of faux-feminist cinema such as The First Wives’ Club, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and Thelma & Louise . When Thelma (Geena Davis) is the victim of an attempted rape at the start of the latter, the signs are that the incident – and the murder of the assailant by Louise (Susan Sarandon) – will be handled with some sensitivity. It isn’t long, though, before the formerly downtrodden Thelma gets a new lease of life, a snazzy tousled hairdo and a career as a convenience-store bandit – and all because of an energetic evening spent with a pretty pick-up played by Brad Pitt. “When Thelma takes up with an attractive young hitchhiker … good sex has as magical an effect on her as any male chauvinist pig could wish,” observed the critic Adam Mars-Jones.

The biggest slight on the heroes of Thelma and Louise is that they are surrounded by cyphers; even the one beneficent male, a cop played by Harvey Keitel, amounts to an idealised avuncular fantasy. It’s as though the screenwriter Callie Khouri and the director Ridley Scott were worried that Thelma and Louise themselves wouldn’t be able to hack it in a film populated by complex or nuanced individuals, so they stacked the odds in their favour. How about giving Thelma a parodically chauvinistic husband who is just plain stupid into the bargain? Or a gnarly, lecherous old trucker for the women to get the better of? He could even shake his fist and call them “bitches from hell”. And what are the chances that a Rastafarian cyclist in the film will conform to his own sort of stereotype by smoking a big fat J?

It’s all too common for films to say one thing and mean another, and contradictions aren’t confined to the area of fraudulent feminism. Django Unchained and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both seem awfully agitated about racism against African Americans. Neither film, however, is quite incensed enough to bother giving their black characters anything interesting to say or do, or any real agency in the plot. No wonder it was only the white actors (Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards, and Christoph Waltz in Django) who got the prizes and acclaim. And films with ostensibly gay subject matter often turn out to be the ones that are most squeamish about homosexuality. The Imitation Game manufactured a faux-mance between Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) and a female colleague (Keira Knightley). Philadelphia portrayed a gay couple who didn’t kiss. Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. was a coming-out tale that evidently wished its hero wouldn’t.

Claiming that these films oppose homophobia, or that Django and Three Billboards are straightforwardly anti-racist, or that 9 to 5 is feminist, does no one any favours. There is a deficit of diverse stories in popular culture, to be sure. But in our rush to compensate, we should be wary of celebrating the bogus article as the real deal, or mistaking a cop-out for a panacea.

9 to 5 is at BFI Southbank from 16 November.

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‘still working 9 to 5’: film review | sxsw 2022.

Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton look at the making of their 1980 hit comedy and its continued political resonance.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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Jane Fonda and her producing partner Bruce Gilbert had already spun issue-oriented storytelling into box office success with Coming Hom e and The China Syndrome when 9 to 5 , their comedy about the plight of female office workers, went into production. It was named after a grassroots organization of women fighting for workplace equality and fair pay, and there was nothing funny about the statistics: There were 20 million female office workers in the American workforce of the 1970s, paid less than 60 cents to the male workers’ dollar, with six out of 100 making it into management ranks. The group 9to5 still exists, workplace parity remains a yet-to-be-achieved goal, and a century after the ERA was introduced, it has yet to become a constitutional amendment.

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Camille Hardman and Gary Lane’s documentary about the megahit wisely takes a page from the movie it celebrates, opting for zingy over preachy. Their strategy pays off, especially in the doc’s first hour, which delves into the development, making and reception of the movie, as told by Gilbert, Fonda and her co-stars Lily Tomlin , Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman. The directors interweave the commentary of activists who were around when 9 to 5 was released, including Karen Nussbaum and Ellen Cassedy, who founded the 9to5 National Association of Working Women in 1973, their work key to Fonda’s research.

Still Working 9 to 5

Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Documentary Spotlight)

Directors: Camille Hardman, Gary Lane

The result is a sparky oral history and a tribute to the power of pop culture to spotlight tough problems; critics might have been lukewarm about its broad strokes, but 9 to 5 was the highest-grossing comedy of 1980, made a star of screen newbie Dolly Parton and spun off a TV series and a musical.

With its spirited interviews and well-chosen clips from the movie, Still Working unfolds with terrific momentum, though that energy gives way to a choppier second half: Tracing the feature’s afterlife, directors Hardman and Lane try to cover as many bases as they can, from the globe-hopping reach of the musical based on the movie to pandemic-era changes in the workplace and their effect on women. Still Working 9 to 5 might at times overstate the significance of the 1980 film, and especially its offshoots in other media, but certainly not the issues it showcased.

It’s worth noting that a few months after the December 1980 release of 9 to 5 , Lee Grant’s documentary The Willmar 8 received its festival bow. Charting the 18-month strike of a group of female bank workers in Minnesota, the film, which would never receive a commercial release (it’s now available on Mubi), is a powerful complement to the big-screen hijinks of Fonda and company. It chronicles an important chapter in the history of American labor, centering on the courage of women who, like Tomlin’s Violet (and how many women still today?), were sick and tired of being expected to train men who would become their bosses while they themselves were never considered for promotion.

The making-of aspect of the doc effortlessly shines a light on the gender disparities of the period. As if to underscore the very theme of the movie, 20th Century Fox needed convincing that a feature could be led by three women, without an established male movie star as the villainous boss. (Clips make amply clear that the considerable comic chops of Coleman, who came from TV, are a crucial element of 9 to 5 .)

The central roles were cast before there was a script, and Parton and Tomlin were thrilled to be personally chosen by Fonda, although Parton, a popular country artist, was mildly concerned about the potential fallout from working with “such a radical gal” as antiwar activist Fonda, and Tomlin turned down the role after she read the screenplay and found the jokes lacking. (She was strongly urged to reconsider by her partner, Jane Wagner.) Clips of the three leads’ promotional interviews for the movie, together and separately, capture not just their chemistry but the novelty of the movie’s subject and the curiosity it provoked.

Patricia Resnick, whose initial script was deemed too dark and reworked by director Colin Higgins (who wrote Harold and Maude ), still doesn’t seem happy about the “slapsticky” direction the movie ultimately took. But she would go on to write the book for the 2008 musical (music and lyrics by Parton). Allison Janney, a member of the original Broadway cast, offers a few sharp observations on the message of the material, and Rita Moreno, who starred in a TV series based on the film — one that, by all accounts including hers, didn’t take long to jump the shark — relates how the movie 9 to 5 helped her break free of the idea that things would never be fair for women and there was nothing to be done about it.

Like Moreno, the culture itself would eventually catch up with the outrage beneath the laughs of 9 to 5 . And then, with #MeToo, it would place that anger front and center. In the doc’s most jarring, complicating moment, Hardman and Lane invite our retroactive cringing with a clip of an exuberant Harvey Weinstein, investor and producer of the Broadway show, on opening night.

As it moves into a more general overview mode, though, their film loses steam. A few minutes spent on Lilly Ledbetter, who took her fight for equal pay to the Supreme Court, makes sense, but a sound bite from Arianna Huffington feels perfunctory.

It’s when it sticks to the dynamics of 9 to 5 , onscreen and behind the scenes, that the doc frequently mines gold — as when sound editor Nicholas Eliopoulos recalls a nervous Parton playing her just-written theme song to him before sharing it with Fonda. Over the documentary’s closing credits, that infectious melody is reborn in a minor-key duet between Parton and Kelly Clarkson. It’s one of the doc’s most convincing arguments for the timelessness of the 1980 material. But, putting aside dated jokes in the comedy and unfocused passages in the doc, Still Working 9 to 5 makes its case: For anyone who cares about workplace justice, the work is far from done.

Full credits

Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Documentary Spotlight) Production companies: Mighty Fine Entertainment, Twinzzone Productions, Artemis Rising Foundation Directors: Camille Hardman, Gary Lane Producers: Camille Hardman, Gary Lane Executive producers: Larry Lane, Steve Summers, Shane McAnally, Gary Lane, Camille Hardman, Regina K. Scully, Geralyn White Dreyfous Director of photography: Brian Tweedt Editors: Oreet Rees, Elisa Bonora Composer: Jessica Weiss Sales: The Gersh Agency

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Every 'Ghostbusters' movie, ranked from worst to best (including the new 'Frozen Empire')

Who ya gonna call to rank all the "Ghostbusters" movies? Well ... us!

Ever since Bill Murray , Dan Aykroyd , Ernie Hudson and the late, great Harold Ramis jumped in a tricked-out 1959 Cadillac and saved Manhattan from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the "Ghostbusters" franchise has entertained generations with paranormal adventures and comedy high jinks on the big screen. (Not to mention toys, breakfast cereals, that Ray Parker Jr. music video and the oh-so-cool "Real Ghostbusters" cartoon show.) The latest installment, "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" (in theaters now), pays homage to past and present, with the OGs teaming with teen Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) and her family to deal with an evil threat looking to ice over New York City.

From worst to best, here's how the latest "Ghostbusters" entry compares to the other sequels, the female-centric reboot and the original 1984 classic.

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New 'Ghostbusters' review: 2024 movie doubles down on heroes and horror, but lacks magic

5. 'Ghostbusters II' (1989)

Murray called the sequel "unsatisfying" but that's being generous. We're going with abhorrent and dreadful. Five years after saving New York City, the Ghostbusters are barely hanging on financially when they're called back into duty, thanks to the reemergence of 16th-century villain Vigo the Carpathian. He's the pits, there's a baby involved, a sewer full of slime is emotionally charged courtesy of angry New Yorkers, and the Ghostbusters pilot the Statue of Liberty – no, really – in the movie's climax.

4. 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' (2021)

This "requel" is all about family legacy – it was even directed by Jason Reitman, son of original "Ghostbusters" director Ivan Reitman. The first half is pretty great, strapping a proton pack to quirky Phoebe as the Oklahoma-based heir apparent and adding Paul Rudd as her cool-guy teacher Gary. But then it turns into a forgettable retread, bringing back the old crew and original foe Gozer (this time played by Olivia Wilde) for a finale that at least pays a nice tribute to Ramis.

3. 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' (2024)

The current sequel returns to New York City with a massive cast – the "Afterlife" crew plus OG Ghostbusters – and throwbacks galore. From a nostalgic point of view, it works; in terms of a coherent narrative, not so much. But the emergence of Garraka as the newest big bad, a horned phantom who represents a chilly existential threat to all mankind, is a highlight. So are the returning Slimer, Aykroyd giving new depth to Ray Stantz, Murray being Murray, and Grace's Phoebe befriending a troubled teen ghost (Emily Alyn Lind).

2. 'Ghostbusters' (2016)

Don't believe the online haters or toxic fandom: Director Paul Feig's enjoyably kooky reboot is the closest any "Ghostbusters" film has come to re-creating the snappy humor and go-for-broke attitude of the original. Childhood friends and physicists Abby (Melissa McCarthy) and Erin (Kristen Wiig) team with Egon-esque engineer Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and subway worker Patty (Leslie Jones) to prevent a ghostly apocalypse in the Big Apple. Chris Hemsworth is the movie's low-key MVP as crew's hilariously dimwitted receptionist.

Review: Steady new female-led 'Ghostbusters' proves a worthy reboot

1. 'Ghostbusters' (1984)

Not just the best "Ghostbusters" movie – one of the greatest comedies of all time, period. With a mix of adult comedy and kid-friendly antics, the first movie followed four dudes, of all different archetypes, bumbling their way into an ectoplasmic mess, ticking off city officials and still figuring out a way to keep Manhattan from being toasted by an ancient demon and/or stepped on by a ginormous marshmallow guy. The acting is terrific, the visuals still pop 40 years later, but the not-so-secret sauce is really Aykroyd and Ramis' script, one full of memorable lines that finds a brilliant balance between supernatural shenanigans and thoughtful spirituality.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Every 'Ghostbusters' movie, ranked from worst to best (including the new 'Frozen Empire')

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‘The Notebook’ Review: A Musical Tear-Jerker or Just All Wet?

The 2004 weepie comes to Broadway with songs by Ingrid Michaelson and a $5 box of tissues.

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By Jesse Green

Romantic musicals are as personal as romance itself. What makes you sigh and weep may leave the person next to you bored and stony.

At “The Notebook,” I was the person next to you.

You were sniffling even before anything much happened onstage. As the lights came up, an old man dozed while a teenage boy and girl frisked nearby in an unconvincing body of water. A wispy song called “Time” wafted over the footlights: “Time time time time/It was never mine mine mine.”

But having seen (I’m guessing more than once) the 2004 movie on which “The Notebook” is based, and possibly having read the 1996 novel by Nicholas Sparks, you perfectly well knew what was coming. That was the point of mounting the show, which opened on Thursday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater , in the first place.

It therefore cannot be a spoiler — and anyway this block of cheese is impervious — to reveal that over the course of the 54 years covered by the musical, the frisky boy, Noah, turns into the dozing man. And that Allie, the frisky girl, having overcome various impediments to their love, winds up his wife. Nor does it give anything away to add that Allie, now 70 and in a nursing home with dementia, will not remember Noah until he recites their story from a notebook she prepared long ago for that purpose.

So there’s a reason the producers are selling teeny $5 “Notebook”-themed boxes of tissues in the lobby. Love is powerful. Dementia is sad. The result can be heartbreaking.

Or maybe, seen with a cold eye, meretricious.

The movie, a super-slick Hollywood affair, did everything it could to keep the eye warm. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, as the young couple, could not have been glowier. The soundtrack relied on precision-crafted standards like “I’ll Be Seeing You” to yank at your tear ducts. The production design, like a montage of greeting cards come to life , celebrated valentine passion, anniversary tenderness and golden sympathy, releasing flocks of trained geese into a technicolor sunset to symbolize lifelong pair bonding.

The musical, unwilling except at the margins to alter a plot so beloved — or at least so familiar — tries to distinguish itself in other ways. It aims for a rougher, hand-hewn texture, befitting Noah’s career as a carpenter and the indie-folk sound of its songwriter, Ingrid Michaelson . The directors, Michael Greif and Schele Williams, have cast the couples regardless of race: a nice, universalizing touch.

In other updates, the book writer, Bekah Brunstetter, has shifted the period by two decades — Noah fights in Vietnam, not at the Battle of the Bulge. She adds a third, intermediate incarnation of the couple, crowding the stage with replicants and pushing the 27-year-old Allie (Joy Woods) into the star spot because someone has to be there. (The 29-year-old Noah is played by Ryan Vasquez.) And instead of the cliché geese, Brunstetter gives us … sea turtles?

No, I don’t get that one either.

In any case, the de-slicking was a mistake; it turns out that the Hollywood varnish was the only thing holding the picture together. In its place, the musical makes few convincing arguments for a separate existence.

Certainly Michaelson’s relentlessly mid-tempo songs do not; they are pretty but flyaway, as insubstantial as blue smoke. Except for a number in which teenager Allie and Noah (Jordan Tyson and John Cardoza) first see each other undressed, the lyrics are vague and humorless, often budding with clichés the book is trying to prune. “I wanna know that my old heart can grow like spring again,” sings Older Noah (Dorian Harewood) — an alarming thought, really, for a 72-year-old or for his cardiologist. Older Allie (the great Maryann Plunkett) barely sings at all, a great loss.

When songs provide so little information, barely differentiating the characters let alone advancing the plot, a musical tends to sag. And when a musical has gone to some trouble to accommodate those songs — the movie of “The Notebook” runs two hours, the show hardly 20 minutes more — the trade-offs are of the nose-versus-face variety.

So Brunstetter, hacking through the story with a scythe to make room, has left bald stumps everywhere. Allie’s meddling, disapproving parents are demoted to mere nasties, their motivations discarded with their back story. Her fiancé is a nonentity. What Noah and Allie do between their late teens (when they meet and separate) and their late 20s (when they are rapturously rejoined) is reduced to a throwaway: “Let’s see — heartbreak, graduation, many many Tuesdays, Thanksgivings, a war.” Flip lines like that break whatever spell the material, usually earnest to a fault, is trying to cast.

The staging is consistently more engaging. Unlike the movie, which keeps its focus on one couple at a time, here we often get all three together, in color-coded costumes (by Paloma Young) that clarify their connections. (The Noahs wear blue and brown, the Allies blue and white.) And though the switching among them sometimes feels mechanical, as the lights (by Ben Stanton) dim on Older Noah reading the notebook and rise on the younger characters enacting its story, the process creates a kind of time-lapse exposure that feels natively theatrical and thus occasionally effective.

On Allie’s side of the equation especially, the time-lapse provides information the movie did not. Because all three ages exist simultaneously, her impetuousness as a teenager is connected to her indecisiveness 10 years later and, perhaps less credibly, to her eventual dementia. In all periods, her relationship to home — “Home” is the title of the Act I finale — is usefully forefronted: the home she leaves, the home she dreams of, the home Noah builds her, the home she cannot get back to.

But only in this last stage does “The Notebook” achieve any real pathos, thanks to Plunkett’s uncompromising naturalism and the lifetime of stage savvy she inevitably brings with her. Her locked-down Allie, banging frantically on the doors of her memory, is an unexpectedly terrifying character to meet in an otherwise bland musical.

It doesn’t hurt that, for those who have followed Plunkett over the years, she is also banging down the doors of our memory. Her troubled Agnes in “Agnes of God” (her Broadway debut, in 1982), her insouciant Sally in “Me and My Girl,” for which she won a Tony Award, and her series of anxious dinner-table Americans in all 12 plays of Richard Nelson’s “Rhinebeck Panorama” help turn a barely there character into a moving one.

Whether that is sufficient to make me cry for a would-be weepie is a different matter. That the “Notebook”-themed tissues are so teeny says it all.

The Notebook At the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, Manhattan; notebookmusical.com . Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes.

Jesse Green is the chief theater critic for The Times. He writes reviews of Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, regional and sometimes international productions. More about Jesse Green

Movie Review: Things get scary for Sydney Sweeney in a creepy Italian convent in ‘Immaculate’

It’s not your imagination: Sydney Sweeney is everywhere. In the past four months, she’s been in a romantic comedy that turned into a sleeper hit , a superhero movie that didn’t and, as of this weekend, a bloody horror . Results have varied, quality-wise, but for someone the culture seems to want to (unfairly) pigeonhole as a specific type, she is really blowing through movie genres in record time.

She also happened to produce the horror, “Immaculate,” in which she plays a young American nun, Cecilia, who’s decided to join an Italian convent. Her character found God after a near-death experience at a young age and, after her parish closes, she gets a lifeline to go abroad and help tend to older, dying nuns. The prettiness of the new surroundings is just a front, of course, and she starts to discover some sinister happenings within the ancient walls.

“Immaculate” is a project that Sweeney originally auditioned for a decade ago, when she was 16. If anything, it is a great showcase for Sweeney’s range (she gets to go from somewhat meek to primal scream) and is full of interesting visuals, beautiful costumes and accomplished makeup work showing all manner of bloody, mangled faces and limbs. But it’s also a movie that does not seem as sure of itself or the point it’s trying to make.

It’s not hard to make a remote Italian convent creepy, or say something provocative and interesting about organized religion — quite a few horrors have succeeded here in the past. But “Immaculate” is not even confident enough to let us experience this place exclusively through Cecilia. No, it opens with a nightmarish prologue to give us a tease of what’s in store for our innocent heroine, like it’s a straight-to-streaming film that doesn’t want you to click onto something else. Being a theatrical release, however, you have to imagine that ticket buyers are going to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and not flee 15 minutes into an 89-minute run.

Or perhaps horror audiences want as much carnage and jump scares as possible — if that is the case, this should be satisfying enough. There are plenty of comically squeaky doors and close-ups of a terrified face wandering around corners in the dark by only candlelight. And the finale is fiery and violent and gruesome as well, with a very silly and perhaps unearned explanation of everything that’s been happening. At least it’s wrapped up, I guess?

But it also doesn’t stand up to much interrogation. Take, for example, its use of subtitles. Cecilia doesn’t yet understand Italian so is beholden to bilingual nuns to translate — which they don’t do entirely accurately or faithfully. Later, when she’s being interrogated by the cardinal (Giorgio Colangeli), we the audience are not privy to any subtitles and have to rely on Father Sal (Álvaro Morte) to translate. Are we to take him at his word when everyone else has proven to be unreliable? Again, why not just trust us to be in Cecilia’s shoes throughout?

This script, written by Andrew Lobel and directed by Michael Mohan, does not seem to really care much about Cecelia and what makes her tick beyond that one story from her childhood. The main nuance she gets is through Sweeney’s performance, which shows us that she does have a spark and the personality to rebel. There were some lofty ideas behind “Immaculate” that seem underserved (about bodily autonomy and such) and she gets several memorable movie star moments, but I want more for Sweeney than whatever this adds up to. She has the chops (a reminder to watch Tina Satter's great film “Reality” ), she just needs the material.

“Immaculate,” a Neon release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “some language, nudity, grisly images, strong violent content.” Running time: 89 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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Movie Review: A remake of ‘Road House’ with Jake Gyllenhaal turns into a muscular, Florida romp

This image released by Prime Video shows Conor McGregor, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Conor McGregor in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Jake Gyllenhaal, left, and Lukas Gage in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Daniela Melchior in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

Jake Gyllenhaal, from left, Daniela Melchoir, Conor McGregor, Lukas Gage and Billy Magnussen pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Jake Gyllenhaal poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Daniela Melchoir poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Conor McGregor poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the the film ‘Road House’ in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

This image released by Prime Video shows Lukas Gage, background left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from “Road House.” (Laura Radford/Prime Video via AP)

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Elwood P. Dalton is a classy sort of bouncer. While five tough guys circle him outside a bar looking to bash his skull in, he has a question for them: “Before we start, do you have insurance?” And after savagely beating each up, he kindly drives them to the hospital.

Dalton — played by a muscular and languid Jake Gyllenhaal — is a former UFC fighter with a dark past in “Road House,” a reworking of the pulpy 1989 action film starring Patrick Swayze.

“You sure you thought this all the way through?” Dalton at one point asks an assailant who has the nerve to plunge a knife into his abdomen. The same question can be asked of the filmmakers: Is it really wise to retread this old flick? The answer is as shocking as a sucker punch: Yes, indeed.

Gyllenhaal is a sort of Spider-Man-meets-Jack Reacher-meets Jason Bourne, an oddball loner with ferocious fighting abilities who makes a living in illegal fights and lives in his car, haunted by what he did to a friend in the octagon. He douses booze on his open wounds and uses electrical tape instead of a bandage, yet he also oddly uses wheelie luggage. (You expected a big old black duffel, right?) What’s in the baggage? A death wish, of course.

He is lured to the Florida Keys by a roadhouse bar owner (the always brilliantly tart Jessica Williams), who needs an excellent bouncer to protect her from nightly violence. He’s offered $5,000 a week to stop thugs in sleeveless jean jackets from throwing bottles, flipping tables and breaking pool cues. (The Florida tourist board will love this movie).

“I’m hoping you’re different,” a bar employee says and he is. Dalton settles in the fictional Glass Key, dates a cutie, makes friends with the good folk and lives in what all damaged loners gravitate to, a houseboat. He soon teaches the other bouncers the tricks of the trade, Zen-like, and finds excellent reasons to take off his shirt.

“I’m just some guy,” he says. “You don’t want to know me.”

Then he uncovers a conspiracy right out of “Scooby-Doo:” The land under the bar is crucial to the creation of a luxury resort dreamed up by the local rich guy and crooked cops. Basically, organized crime is trying to drive the bar owner out of business. “Zoinks!”

At this point, “Road House” gets an instant jolt of electricity from former UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who makes his acting debut as a psychotic gun-for-hire Knox. He may have one of the best intros in film history, casually walking down a European town buck naked except for a pair of boots.

Dalton and Knox are destined to go mano-a-mano and there’s a grudging respect between them. They’re both deeply cut and they’re both messed up. “There’s something wrong with you. Me too,” the Irish mountain of muscles says. He’s the sort of chaos agent who picks up a golf club and says he wants to go “clubbing.”

Like a night of heavy drinking, things gets a little bizarre toward the end of the movie as it starts straying far from the roadhouse. Speed boats go flying, explosions go bang and someone uses arson to send a message. A deadly crocodile that plays an outsized role is sadly abandoned.

Screenwriters Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry have leaned into cliches — dead mothers, double-crosses and quirky kids that pull out the paternal part of our heroes. But a menacing, unstable McGregor is a gift. So is Billy Magnussen, who plays the rich boy bully deliciously preppy. He’s so evil, he throws his cellphone into the ocean out of frustration, then asks an underling to retrieve it.

“The Bourne Identity” director Doug Liman seems to be having fun, his camera lingering on the chiseled beefsteak and mixing in honky tonk songs by the deliciously named Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & The Zydeco Twisters. The action scenes are dynamite, layering POV camera work with great, thundering, bottle smashing stunts. It knows it’s silly, but it’s still a good time.

That’s reason enough that Liman is upset the movie is avoiding cineplexes and going straight to streaming. But he could rectify that. He could hire, like, an unstable, but gracious, former fighter who lives in his car. For a few thousand, that guy can make things right.

“Road House,” an Amazon MGM Studios release streaming on Prime Video from March 21, is rated R for “nudity, violence, alcohol use and foul language.” Running time: 114 minutes. Three stars out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Online: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0CH61M727/ref=atv_hm_hom_c_foFU9R_10_2?jic=8%7CEgNhbGw%3D

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits