The Rivermode Film Journal

My feelings on Career Opportunities are slightly complicated. In many ways it is a Very conservative film, but at the same time it does earnestly and honestly tap into a youthful malaise coming out of the immediate aftermath of the corporatization of America. Coming from John Hughes it is, in theory, particularly interesting to see this exploration due to his huge success in this period. In a way, his films sort of culturally define the era. But this film feels unwilling to fully explore this malaise, it certainly is Not The Breakfast Club. It feels more focused on pratfalls and Jennifer Connelly’s body. 

Career Opportunities centers on Jim (Frank Whaley), the “town liar,” who simultaneously acts as a burnout and someone who wants to take over the world (it never makes sense). He is pushed into getting a job at Target by his parents, the overnight cleanup boy. There he encounters Josie (Jennifer Connelly), a bombshell rebelling against her exorbitantly wealthy (and abusive) father. Together, they spend the night locked in the Target, exploring each others’ hopes, desires and general life circumstances.

Jim feels like an attempt to bring Ferris Bueller into the working world and it’s actually somewhat successful, if only due to Whaley’s portrayal. He has the charisma and comedic timing to pull a role like this off (and he takes some impressive pratfalls). However, the anarchic spirit of Bueller is sorely lacking, to the point that Jim seems to think people stealing from his workplace is something that needs to be stopped, even at gunpoint. This is a character that exists as a contradiction, in a sense it could be added complexity, but as none of it is ever explored, I think it really is just sloppy writing. There are two moments where signs transform through his eyes, now bearing his name, but outside of that we never see any great ambition from Jim. There is some discontentment in his life, no doubt about that, but we never get a sense of what he wants. By the end he’s just going along with what Josie wants to do. Lack of definition almost acts as a defining trait for the characters of this film.

Josie kind of isn’t a character. Narratively, she’s there to show that rich people have problems too and to push Jim into using his “freedom.” But mostly, really, Gordon and Co. want you to leer at her and they make that very clear. It comes with the territory, I know, but it’s not like this wasn’t something that was better handled 1000x over. (See: Fast Times at Ridgemont High.) Connelly does her best with the material, but it’s really just not there. It’s surprising to see such bland and blatant exploitation coming right off of Hughes’ legendary run in the 80s. You’d get the sense that he’s beyond this, but there’s just nothing here.

The setting here is interesting, in a sense. They actually make quite good use of the space, but it’s impossible not to see it as a giant commercial for Target. The triumphant musical sting over the extended shot of Jim standing in front of the store for the first time is as gratuitous as the way they shoot Connelly. For as much as it pretends to center on the characters’ situations in this new era, it feels more comfortable buying into the excesses. It works to dismiss the genuine concerns that the characters (and real people like them) felt at the time. The aimlessness and lack of direction is waved away by the idea of people having this false sense of freedom. It’s like the film is saying, “How could you complain when you can buy everything you’d ever need in one store?”

For all the faults I’ve pointed out, it does fly by (with a merciful 82 minute runtime) and maintains a moderate enjoyablility. It being a Hughes production, the soundtrack kicks ass. But it is a disappointment, the bones of a great film are there, but it never digs into what it needs to. You’re better off watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or The Breakfast Club, hell, even Home Alone.

2/5