The Assistant  ★★★½

IF YOU haven’t see the television series Ozark you’ve missed a great performance by a young actress named Julia Garner.

She plays a young woman who initially seems simple and inconsequential but proves to be extremely resourceful, smart and strong when she is drawn into a world of organised crime.

In The Assistant, Garner plays a very different character but with the same authenticity and quiet power.

The central character, whom I’m pretty sure is never named, has just started a new job as office assistant to the head of an entertainment talent agency.

For the first act of the film we follow her daily routine, answering phones, organising appointments, greeting people attending meetings, tidying his office, getting lunches, etc.

It’s a low-level entry position but one that her colleagues and family tell her will eventually lead to better things.

But what it does lead to is a personal moral quandary as she slowly learns the truth about her boss’s behaviour to women.

An ear-ring found on his office carpet, invoices that she is told to ignore, comments about not sitting on the couch in his office; all subtle hints that she absorbs but doesn’t take further.

But then she is verbally abused by the boss on the phone after she dares to dispute comments by a mystery woman who isn’t his wife.

Then the last straw comes when she is concerned by the young age of the latest woman who seems to be his next prey.

In a devastatingly under-stated sequence she goes to the company’s HR department to raise concerns only to face a reaction that reinforces the level of power and indifference confronting anyone who tries to speak out and make change.

If you’re looking for an overt and righteous examination of the fight back against mysoginy and the environment that protects it, watch a film like Bombshell.

The Assistant is a much quieter and oblique experience, e.g. we never see her boss, but it’s just as well made, effective and important.