‘You always have an answer for everything…’
Writer-director Tom Holland is best known for his work within the horror genre. Child’s Play, Psycho 2, Fright Night and Stephen King’s Thinner all have heavy involvement from Holland. While The Temp falls squarely into the yuppie nightmare subgenre rather than out-and-out horror, Holland can’t help but add a nasty sensibility to the whole thing that makes it stand out in the face of many other similar films…
Peter Durns (Timothy Hutton) is trying to climb the corporate ladder and it seems his impressive temporary assistant Kris Bolin (Lara Flynn Boyle) is his ticket to the top. Anyone who has seen Bad Influence, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle or even Fatal Attraction will know what happens next. Although they might not predict that the film’s climax takes place in a cookie factory.
Working from a screenplay by Kevin Falls (The West Wing) and based on an original story idea from producer Tom Engelman, The Temp treads familiar ground but Hutton and Flynn Boyle are so damn good that it doesn’t matter how derivative it is (and it really is). Holland’s shooting style veers between horror, grown-up drama and erotic thriller and while this perhaps makes for a tonally uneven film, it is also wildly entertaining in a pulpy, trashy way. Flynn Boyle’s antagonist is a sexually charged puzzle box that Hutton tries and fails to unlock as the movie races to its bloody conclusion. This makes for a compelling third act that delivers on all the world-building that has come before (Chekov’s letter opener, anyone?).
I’ve watched a lot of ’80s/’90s thrillers in the yuppie nightmare subgenre over the last year or so and while The Temp is one of the least remembered (having been both a critical and commercial failure upon release), it is also one of the film’s I have enjoyed the most. Come for the premise. Stay for the cast. Get comfortable for Holland’s stylish direction and the bonkers ending.