The Temp (1993) Online

This is one of my "guilty pleasures" movies. A movie that has no real message and nothing profound to say. It's just fun to watch. (Con Air is another example for me.) The performances are more than adequate for this type of movie, so it is easy to watch.

Basic premise, Peter Derns (Timothy Hutton) gets a temp, Kris Bolin (Lara Flynn Boyle) that is smart, sexy and ambitious. She seems like a Godsend at first because she actually helps him in his dog-eat-dog world of marketing. His boss, Charlene (Faye Dunaway) is great in her supporting role as both mentor & menace.

One of the problems is that Peter is under mental supervision (aka: shrink) for supposed paranoia & extreme jealousy. When things start to go wrong as Kris works her way up the ladder, everyone thinks he's just paranoid. Hmm?

Well, you can probably guess what happens next. But even though this movie is predictable, it doesn't stop me from watching it whenever it's on. The actors are fun to watch, and very attractive. The sexual tension between Hutton & Boyle is believable. And there are plenty of deaths to keep it moving right along!

Just a fun movie, nothing major or worthy of the Academy of Dramatic Arts- but then not everything has to be. Just enjoy this for what it is- a guilty pleasure.

THE TEMP is one of those glossy 90s office thrillers that you can watch with one eye closed, walk away from it for a few minutes, come back to it and not miss a thing. Michael Douglas made one of these as well, 1994's DISCLOSURE. Lara Flynn Boyle, the main reason for watching this, plays a nutjob temp who fills in for corporate exec Tim Hutton's regular secretary. Pretty soon, his in-office competitors and acquaintances are dropping like flies, and the very existence of the company is threatened -- all thanks to the evil machinations of the delectable and obsessed Ms. Boyle, who is lots of fun to watch as she slithers about and whispers dire warnings in her boss' ear. Hutton perhaps plays his part a little too straight, but old-timer Faye Dunaway as the beleaguered company head tears up the scenery in every one of her too-few scenes. Dunaway at least knows when she's working a turkey jerky. Try watching Boyle and not think of her in WAYNE'S WORLD, by the way. She played a similar nutjob in that comedy classic.

A standardized psychological thriller, in the "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" mold; we have yet another female character that seduces the men with her attractiveness and at first appears to be incredibly genial and helpful, but gradually turns into a possessive, obsessive person, ready to try anything to achieve her goals. The film is overly predictable and long but fairly entertaining. Lara Flynn Boyle is not quite up to the level we'd like her to be, but Timothy Hutton is an effortlessly likable actor, easy to identify with. (**)

**** REVIEW INCLUDES "GREAT DIALOG" SPOILERS ****

Wow was I surprised to see all the positive reviews of this movie here. I thought I was alone in being entertained by this. External reviews often completely trash this movie without finding anything positive.

Well get this chemical makeup: Stunning and popular star Lara Flynn Boyle overtly titillating us and wearing skimpy outfits even including a bikini(!), Timothy Hutton, habitual scene stealer Oliver Platt during younger and thinner days, superstar Faye Dunaway, and Steven Webber from the TV show "Wings." How's that for voltage? Add in a proved plot line with a long pedigree (Hand that rocks the cradle, Single White Female, many more), some great whacky dialog, and top it off with the inspired idea of a corporate thriller set in a cookie company with the climax in an industrial kitchen, and yeah...I'll bank that. How could you possibly lose?

Actually I really like this movie, even just watching it straight. The only problem I have is Faye Dunaway's really bad, hammy, mugging acting, and toward the end Boyle picks up some of the same style, but other than that I like it. However, if you make me analyze it, OK, it's riddled with plot holes, dropped threads, unanswered questions, implausibilities, etc, but that really doesn't matter if the movie succeeds in entertaining me. And it does. So with that in mind, you could look at it as one of the "so bad it's good" genre, and it does succeed on that level. I agree with others that the ending seems as tho it was written on the spot when someone lost the rest of the script.

It actually has a lot of good stuff in it. For example:

One of my favorite literary devices is the "buddy thing," which is an entertainment staple: Laurel and Hardy, Skipper and Gilligan, Kip and friend in Bosom Buddies, Balky and Larry in "Perfect Strangers," etc. This movie features that, but in four directions: Hutton and his boss, Hutton and his buddy (Webber), Hutton and his rival (Platt), Hutton and Boyle. Lots of fun there.

The highlight for me is some of the whacky dialog, which I'm still quoting years later. For example: "You're BLOWIN' it man." "YOU'VE GOT THIS PROBLEM." And one of the greatest lines ever: "Good gosh how hard can it be? I'm not asking you to splice DNA you just DO IT!"

Wonderful stuff.

Finally, it's no surprise that Hutton and Platt both turn in performances that are well worth watching.

I would have liked to give this movie a 10, because it's really one of my favorites, but I couldn't do that in good conscience, so I had to go easy on the superlative.

I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one who finds pleasure in this cunning little trifle from "Fright Night" director Tom Holland.

Yes, it's a blank-from-hell picture and yes also, the blank in question happens to be a secretary/admin assistant (amazing how much mileage this particular career gets in this role), but "The Temp" jazzs up the stakes by making the stalkee --- in this case ad man Peter Derns (Timothy Hutton) --- a paranoid head case with anger management problems.

Lara Flynn Boyle of Twin Peaks fame plays the stalker with a mix of innocence and deliberateness that suggests a truly unhinged personality waiting to detonate. Watching her manipulate and provoke Hutton's character provides for some sick thrills --- it's like tormenting a wounded insect only the insect probably has more going on upstairs.

The plot is cheesy, for sure, but the script always keeps you watching. The dialogue is smooth for the most part and even when it borders on camp, it's not so over the line that it breaks the spell (until near the end when some of the action gets a bit superhero-ish).

Despite being a fun ride, "The Temp" suffers from one of the lamest closing lines ever (tied with "Get a Life" from "Sliver") but even that will give you a little chuckle. And there's worse things to get from grade B thrillers.

I too turned this film on not expecting much...in fact as something to fall asleep to...

BUT

its not as bad as you might think

Tim Hutton plays paranoid pretty much the same as he did in 'Dark Half' and Lara Flynne Boyle does a fine job as the obvious 'crazy' whilst managing to hold up one of the most ridiculous hairstyles in years...and the movie still works as long as you think of it as a sub-Fatal Attraction thriller and not expect some novel work of cinema

Give it a go...

I found this video in an ex-rental shop, i had never heard of it and bought it for 50 eurocents. When i came home and searched on how people voted for this film. The average vote was not encouraging so i left it on the shelf for months. When i decided to watch it, it was surprisingly good. Not a classic and sometimes very predictable, but never dull. Good performances by the leading characters, especially Laura Flynn Boyle and Faye Dunaway. I rate this film 8 out 0f 10.

Many of the key scenes are telegraphed in the style of Friday the 13th.

Faye Dunaway is over-the-top. She's sort of like The Joker in batman. She kind of channeled her character from the movie Network, but it didn't work here as well.

Timothy Hutton is my favorite actor. He makes it look so easy, and has such an appealing presence. Another reviewer said that you want to root for his character, because you identify with him. I agree. That's the case with most of his movies.

Lara Flynn Boyle was great. She nailed it. However, her hair style, and the psychotic look in her eyes were a real turn off. Maura Tierney is meant to look depressed and plain. Therefore, there was no eye-candy in this one for me, although I understand that Boyle was, for most men.

Portland, and Oregon in general looked great. I never thought of skycrapers and big businesses in Portland, but I guess there are some. There is a scene when the characters are traveling down to the state capitol of Salem, via the Coast Highway. That was just thrown in for scenery, because the coast is way west of the road to Salem.

The main character's personal problem from the past is key to the plot. It seems a bit far-fetched, but I liked it. A simple, cheap plot device, but I'll allow it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the physical atmosphere, the buddy aspect, the believable wife, Hutton's persona, and the devilish Boyle. Not a great film, but I will undoubtedly take out my VHS copy again in a few years, or introduce it to a friend.

I remember wanting to see this when I was 13 back in 1993 because it looked so bad! Six years later, I rented it and sure enough, it was so bad it's good! It stars Lara Flynn Boyle (The Practice) as a quirky, femme fatale who causes problems for the people around her. Although the movie was well cast and put together well, there really was no point to it! It never really went into Boyle's character's personality, about WHY she was so strange! Overall, I'd rent this just for entertainment, not for a good thriller! Sure to become a 1990s cult classic. ~CosmicGirl

Tame, unoriginal, forgettable, bloodless and boooooooring 90's thriller, set on the management floor of a cookie-factory. The plot is routine thriller material without surprises and the movie still attempts to cash in on the success formula of "Fatal Attraction", which was made half a decade earlier. Peter Derns is an executive and former mental patient (great combination) who receives a beautiful temporary assistant to bridge a stressful period. She – the gorgeous Lara Flynn Boyle – immediately proves herself useful and she even gives good input for the company's newest project. But of course she becomes a little too obsessed with her boss and career, and pretty soon other rival executives start to die in mysterious circumstances. Very convenient if you want to climb up the company-ladder, but nevertheless suspicious. "The Temp" is one of those countless early 90's thrillers that introduce femme fatales as dangerous psychopaths (other examples being "Single White Female", "The Crush" and "The Secretary") but this premise actually is pretty weak and overly predictable. The screenplay features a series of clichés, typically lame office-humor and really ALL the characters are annoying stereotypes. There's nothing even remotely interesting about this film and the downright lousy ending will make you regret sitting through it even more.

If you haven't seen "Can't Stop the Music," starring Bruce Jenner, The Village People, and a host of "B" flick personalities from multiple generations, please take it in at first opportunity. It's my all-time favorite "guilty pleasure" movie, but unlike this one, is truly so bad, so over-the-top and loony it's moved on the dial past "0" and to "10" in its awfulness.

This picture, for me (as with others who've commented here) also falls into the "guilty pleasure" classification.

Nothing new for Fay Dunaway; she is attractive, but gnaws the scenery like a horde of beavers.

And this entire crew in the featured business enterprise, including Hutton and Boyle with their supporting players, would have trouble running a Junior Achievement project, say, where the kids were selling glove compartment emergency kits, or carriers for your television directory and remote control - much less engaging in big-time corporate strategies. Throughout the film, this thought held almost as much fascination for me as the plot and performances.

Another fringe benefit of a presentation like this one is that if you're interrupted, or have to leave for a brief chore or errand, there is no problem picking it up when you return.

The attractiveness of the cast, and the quality of their talents and resumés, is a few notches above those normally found in this type of t.v. film -- so this is another plus, which makes it perhaps 7*, instead of the 3 to 5 it would otherwise merit.

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT:

The Temp is a by the numbers "stalker genre" Movie similar to movies like Single White female, Fatal Attraction and Swim Fan-which I had the privilege of seeing not that long ago. It's also not very good. Actually it's, while not unwatchable, pretty unoriginal in the way the story goes but I doubt when they made this, originality was the main thing they were aiming for.

The two things I noticed with this movie were: first, the movie (for the beginning and middle) plays like any other stalker movie and actually becomes almost dull at times. There's really nothing here that hasn't been done a million times and The Temp doesn't do it in such a way that one is glued to the screen. The second thing I noticed is that "twists" are introduced which in this movie's case, is not a good thing, because most of them don't make any sense and the movie plays in such a way that by the end one is more baffled then intrigued.

The movie also had an opportunity after one of the twists to go in a rather interesting direction but it doesn't happen. The whole scene at the end with the chases in the factory was just to much and I'm not sure if the final twist in the last few minutes was supposed to be clever but all it made me do was think: CMON! By the end of the movie The Temp has become to jumbled and over the top to be interesting. It's not the performers who were fine. But the movie itself didn't seem to try to hard and was alternatively run of the mill and over the top weird. This isn't the worst of the Worst but it isn't very enjoyable. My vote's 3 of 10.

Laura Flynn Boyle's character is so dedicated to her boss that when he jokingly suggests that a fellow coworker with whom he is in competition with for a promotion be killed - she actually does it. Who wouldn't want that?

In all seriousness I really enjoyed this film. It held my interest and yes the ending was rather lame but I enjoyed it up until that point.

Timothy Hutton is always good in a role. Laura Flynn Boyle held my interest. She used to be so beautiful. (Laura what happened to you? Stop with the fillers and cigarettes for food!) It's horrible to see once beautiful actresses go downhill so badly.

I don't really know if Faye Dunaway did a good job or not because rather than focusing on her acting skills all I could see were her terrible teeth. I couldn't focus on anything else. Ugh!

Oliver Platt gave a great performance as usual. This guy is so great in everything he's in that if for some weird reason he were to accept a role in a Sharknado film it would become a potential award winner. He's that good! He just cannot miss. I love watching him onscreen.

As far as my serious critique of this film - the one thing I will say for it is...it did do a good job showing the psychological aspects of the affects of someone who is a pathological liar. They tell the truth just enough to always be able to cover their tracks but deep down their motives are usually pretty twisted. To complicate matters with the situation Timothy Hutton's character is just coming off of therapy in regards to paranoia. I don't know how many people are out there IRL going to the extremes that Laura Flynn Boyle's character did; but IRL even on a much smaller scale (and not like the extremes in this film) pathological liars seemingly skate through on everything and are never held accountable for anything because they lie and twist things just enough so they are still believable. If questioned they can always find a way to put things back on the other person so that they think they are the ones that are wrong or who might be losing their mind. It really is kind of an incredible thing to witness. At the end of the movie Timothy Hutton's character says "you've always got an answer". While viewing this I even found myself wondering at certain points along the way if she had actually done those things. If they hadn't had the one smoking gun with the phone call he got in the hotel you still might be able to walk away from this film thinking it was up for interpretation - whether she was truly guilty or not or if it was just his paranoia. I think the film is leading you to believe that she did do all those things; but the way they portrayed it - it's not like they went back and showed her specifically doing each of those things. She just always popped up after something happened or she had a perfectly logical answer for everything; even the one thing that you thought for sure would be a smoking gun in the end that would just nail her to the wall-she had an explanation for it (the fake photo of her family).

What was the end game for her in this scenario? Are we to surmise that eventually she would have killed him to take his place?

The one thing that does not make sense and that really shows just how twisted she is-if she really did do it-is cutting the brakes on the car. How could she have known that they wouldn't have crashed and died? She had no way to know that so what was the motive for cutting the brakes? Did she do that so that Timothy Hutton would think it was somebody else so that she wouldn't look guilty and they would have a bonding moment? It all seemed rather unclear.

Also the ending was very anti-climactic for as dramatic as everything had been up until that point you would've thought they would've ended it with a scene of them standing outside on a balcony or something and him telling her she was fired and then her trying to come at him and kill him or push him off; and as they're fighting she's the one that gets pushed off because at this point she is going to be so ready for revenge that you know she's not just going to leave quietly. But we're just kind of left hanging and having to figure out our own ending.

At any rate I think it was ok. If anything it's fun to go back and see these movies for the wardrobes alone.

Very suspenseful film stars the Lara Flynn Boyle as a temp who is climbing the corporate ladder faster than her boss (Timothy Hutton) and makes his life a living hell the entire way by sabotaging his work and murdering various executives. Boyle turns in a delightfully wicked performance that rises beyond, and Hutton's performance as Peter Derns is exceptionally true to what any man would do. Lara plays a convincing deadly Diva, along the same lines as some of the greats like Kathy Bates in "Misery", Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction", and Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct." Rarely do you see this many twist and turns in what looks to be a straightforward plot...

Actually I really like this movie! Stunning and popular star Lara Flynn Boyle overtly titillating us and wearing skimpy outfits even including a bikini, Timothy Hutton, habitual scene stealer Oliver Platt during younger and thinner days, superstar Faye Dunaway, and Steven Webber from the TV show "Wings." How's that for voltage? Add in a proved plot-line with a long pedigree, some great whacky dialog, and top it off with the inspired idea of a corporate thriller set in a cookie company with the climax in an industrial kitchen, and yeah... I'll bank that. How could you possibly lose?

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

The stalker from hell was the most popular plot in Hollywood in the early 1990s . In fact come to think of it , it was probably the only Hollywood plot in those days . Never a week went by without a major film studio releasing film featuring a spurned lover from hell , a lodger from hell , a cop from hell a flatmate from hell etc . What I didn`t know was that there was a personal assistant from hell film called THE TEMP untill I saw it on TV the other night .

I`ve got to admit I`ve got a soft spot for these type of movies even though they`re all the same . As you`d expect THE TEMP plays out like the rest of them with an everyman character finding his life falling apart with the climax involving a physical life or death struggle . Timothy Hutton plays the everyman character fairly well in this , and the final scene isn`t as how you`d expect it . Without doubt the best scene involves some public samples of biscuits .

If you like these type of movies you`ll like THE TEMP . If not you won`t

The workforce is very cutthroat. You got to be the best in the field, and it can be murder. In "The Temp", it makes total sense. A divorced executive(Timothy Hutton) comes back to work after suffering from paranoia. His boss(Faye Dunaway) brings him back with a surprise: The cookie company is being bought by a major brand. Too many obstacles are being thrown at him. Rivals in his job are trying to get promoted, his secretary leaves when his wife is having a baby. Then suddenly, he would get a temp(Lara Flynn Boyle) to help him out. However, she has a agenda of her own. She would help wipe out the competition he has. I mean, LITERALLY. One has an allergic reaction to bee stings. Another would be found hanged by the executive late one night. Not only is the temp very proficient, she was also very manipulative. She would even take out the boss as well. They would say that is a dog eat dog world, this movie is kind of reminder that the real world is unkind. The cast of the movie is great. Tom Holland did very well on what he did. I find this movie very interesting and very entertaining. Recommended for the hard at work. 4 out of 5 stars

The movie begins with Peter Derns (Timothy Hutton) talking with someone but we never see who. It is probably a psychologist but we don't know. One of the things he talks about is paranoia I think. He does have problems with paranoia during the show.

I was hoping to see some of the love and romance from Lara Flynn Boyle that she is capable of but her character Kris Bolin does not show that. Kris Bolin however is not evil and calculating; only a guilty person would be.

The movie is a mystery. It keeps us wondering who did it. There are many things that are done, such as sabotage and for some of them there are not clear answers to who done them.

Unfortunately this is another story where the writers do not play fair. I really think that if you knew at the beginning how it will end then there are times you would think it is ridiculous that the person would do what they do.

I like that Peter Derns treats Kris Bolin as an equal as much as he does.. He wants to get back together with his wife (they are separated and I think that is implied at the beginning of the movie) and behaves accordingly. I like Maura Tierney as the understanding and tolerant wife but the wife is not in the movie a lot.

This movie has all the trappings to be a sexy thriller in the vein of Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, Body of Evidence, but it misses on three counts....

1. Lara Flynn Boyle (who I adored in The Practice) does not have the chops to play a character that Sharon Stone, Glenn Close and Madonna cornered in their respective turns.

2. Faye Dunaway is so over the top that we actually applaud her final outcome.

3. The ending is just terrible. You are waiting for something more fun and climactic, but since Hutton's character was such a goody-goody, not much else is realistically possible.

This film grips you at points, but when it's over, you just wonder why you wasted your time.

Sat through this with the wife, overly long, dull, insane situations, add nonsensical ending and the cable TV rating of 1 (one) star is generous. Skip it.

Silly plot, Predictable, Drama none, Boring, Long, most of it should have been left on the cutting room floor. Ending, how lame was that, the women had killed or maimed several co-workers and the CEO. She is told to clean out her desk and leave. What was that?

Should have known better, it was on Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) formerly Lifetime the network for women. The Simpson had it right, the Network for stupid people.

I prefer stories with many plot threads, twists, events you cannot foresee.

The Temp is right out of the Dummies Guide to Movie making, page 2.

Peter Derns an executive at Mrs. Appleby's cookie company wants to move up the chain, but his finding it hard and his marketing just isn't working. However when his new temp Kris Bolin arrives, she proves not only she's beautiful but very efficient in her job and helps him successfully with his campaign. But there's something not quite right about her intentions, which Peter starts picking up on and some executives fall to mysterious deaths. Is it all in his head, all is Kris really behind all of this.

Director Tom Holland has such films behind him like "Fright Night", "Child's Play" and "Thinner", but this sedate (and tame) psycho-thriller really does pale in comparison to those fun flicks. Holland's competently assured direction makes slick work of this lifeless and mechanically structured premise that never really takes off even with such a deviously twisted idea. Because of Holland's panache and a terrific cast (Faye Dunaway is great!), it stays effectively watchable. It's just too bad that studio interference in the editing side damaged just what could've been. The theme is all about playing on the twisty paranoia and lurking competition for success, but it goes on to lack that real daring and dark edge like a knife in the back. It sets itself in taut confines, and can feel rather calmly. The wordy script goes about things in quite an unbalanced frame, with an almost tongue-in-cheek style getting caught up in the serious moments. The two never really level out. Fredric Talgorn's music score is generically jarring, but suitable and Steve Yaconelli's sharply lensed photography and lighting placement is ably done for the right effect. Timothy Hutton is perfectly cast, and the excellent Lara Flynn Boyle is rapturously sexy and cunning to the bone. There's quite an intriguingly unpredictable pattern to Hutton and Boyle's mind-screwing relationship. This is where most of the pressure filled and sexual tension arises from. Oliver Platt appears, but seems wasted in an insignificant part as a slimy executive.

Lukewarm thriller that never finds its way out of its artificial mould and ends rather abruptly.

This movie is awful. It's one of those movies that when you're home for the holidays and watch at your parents house, it's not even worth it. I kept on thinking that it would get better but it never did. It was filmed in my home town and that was the only good thing about the movie. They totally wasted Oliver Platt in this flick.

Delightfully nasty film about a temporary office assistant (Lara Flynn Boyle) who makes life for her new boss (Timothy Hutton) a living hell through her perfect organizational skills, a cold icey manner, and the fact that she is raising up the cooperate latter faster then him. Oh, also all of his friends are turning up dead and he suspects her of all the killings. Lara Flynn Boyle's trim body and slick cool look make her a perfect choice for her role. She perfectly captures upper class stuffiness while hiding her true emotions behind her icey interior. However, as the film moves on it just gets sillier and sillier.

Rated R; Violence and Profanity.

I really enjoyed this movie and the possible plot twists, but they don't really happen. And the wrap it up quick ending was more than irritating.

However, I was glued to the screen.... I enjoyed Tim Hutton's performance. Boyle was superb as the ambitious, ruthless fem fatale. But when did Faye Dunaway become a caricature of herself? I guess ever since Mommy Dearest. I rate the movie a 4 out of 10. It was a 6 until the ending. But it does have the qualities of a Cult Classic. I'll be interested to see how it ages. The writing won't improve with age, but the camp might.