Bartleby

2001
PG-13
1h 23m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

2.3K

YOUR RATING

Crispin Glover, Glenne Headly, Seymour Cassel, David Paymer, Maury Chaykin, and Joe Piscopo in Bartleby (2001)

A complacent boss is flummoxed by a cryptic office worker whose refusal of duties is accompanied by the phrase, I WOULD PREFER NOT TO.

Play trailer2:00

1 Video

6 Photos

Satire Comedy Drama Mystery

A clueless boss has no idea what to do with his mundane office worker whose refusal of duties only gets worse each passing minute.A clueless boss has no idea what to do with his mundane office worker whose refusal of duties only gets worse each passing minute.A clueless boss has no idea what to do with his mundane office worker whose refusal of duties only gets worse each passing minute.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

2.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Videos1

Trailer 2:00

Bartleby

Photos6

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Dick Martin's final acting performance.

Goofs
When "The Boss" goes to check out a new place for their office, he settles on a place with no electrical outlets on 3 of the walls. (The 4th wall is not shown) There's a Xerox and every desk has a computer. This arrangement would be completely unacceptable for any office manager.

Quotes
Bartleby: I would prefer not to.

Crazy credits
Before the opening credits begin, viewers are given a portrait and short biography of Herman Melville, upon whose story the film is loosely based.

Connections
Referenced in Stargate: Atlantis: The Lost Boys (2005)

Soundtracks
Phantasie #3 In D Minor
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (as Mozart)
Background music on piano by Nancy Spottiswoode

User reviews45

Review

Featured review

7/10

I can't think what to make of this one...

I found this movie disturbing. Advertised as a comedy, it is no such thing. There is a lot of comedy in there, all right, but overall the themes are heavy, disturbing, even horrific. Crispin Glover's performance is flawless, and his role in the story is to pose a lot of questions that never get answered. The story revolves around the other characters' failure to figure him out. The new employee at the Public Records Office in an unnamed city starts out doing a great job, but he does less and less work as time goes on until he is spending most of his time refusing requests to perform any job tasks, or simply gazing up into the air-conditioning vent. They fire him, but he doesn't leave. It gets worse from there, believe me.