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OK who here has, at some time or
another, answered their telephone to be harassed by a voice on the other end
trying to sell them something that they do not want and will certainly never
need? All of you? Good. We all know how annoying these people are, so why
anyone thought it would be a great idea to make a movie about them is, in all
honesty, a mystery to me.
Vince Vaughn plays Pendleton, or
“Penny”, a thirty-something telemarketer who spends all day sitting in a
crummy office, trying to convince people to part with their cash in exchange
for some kind of amazing holiday deal. He lives with his physically disabled
friend Joel and, despite making enough money to pay the rent and buy food,
seems to be pretty disparate about his current employment.
When the company Penny works for
folds, an opportunity arises to work for a legendary telemarketing figure by
the name of Kelly Grant. Confident of his ability to close a deal over the
phone, Pendleton takes the job and learns he now has the opportunity to make
thousands of dollars per day.
The Prime Gig is, after all is
said and done, about the issue of trust. Kelly Grant wants his employees to
trust that what they are selling is legit. The telemarketers want their
potential customers to trust that what they are buying is beneficial to them.
Everyone, the audience included, is required to take a great deal on faith,
and believe in something that they cannot in fact see. Perhaps the whole
telemarketing thing is some kind of metaphor for religion, but most likely
it’s just testament to the cynical belief that if something seems too
good to be true, it probably is.
Sadly, it’s not one of the best
movies ever made. It’s hard to really care what becomes of Penny, given that
he is, when all is said and done, a phone salesman. His friendship with Joel
seems to have no real relevance to the story either, it’s appears as if a
half-thought out sub-plot was just tacked onto the film for the hell of it.
The audio and video are both
fine, but unfortunately the only extra is a theatrical trailer. Pretty poor
effort, really.
The Prime Gig is ultimately
watchable, but not anything to get excited over. You could do a lot worse, but
you could also do much, much better.
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