Taglines: Don’t get mad. Get promoted.
The Temp movie storyline. A cookie company takeover has employees scrambling to make a case for continued employment. An executive’s administrative assistant takes paternity leave, and he gets a temp who is too good to be true, doing tasks at a fast pace and doing quite a bit of creative work for the project.
The executive starts noticing that all the obstacles to his climb up the corporate ladder are disappearing, including the death of some of his rivals. When his regular admin returns to work, his temp, who has made it clear that she wishes to stay with him, begins her own accelerated climb up the ladder, and he begins wondering if she was responsible for the removal of the obstacles.
The Temp is a 1993 American thriller film starring Timothy Hutton, Lara Flynn Boyle and Faye Dunaway. It was released from Paramount Pictures on February 12, 1993. Parts of the movie were filmed on the South Park Blocks in Portland, Oregon. This film was directed by Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play), and written by Tom Engelman and Kevin Falls (Shark).
About the Story
Peter Derns (Timothy Hutton) is an executive for a cookie company. He has just been released from a clinic after being treated for paranoia and he is still in a shaky emotional state. On his first day back at work, he becomes further upset when he walks into a marketing meeting to make a new product presentation without knowing that his company has been taken over by a major food conglomerate.
The company’s new owners are looking to make cutbacks and Peter’s whole career is riding on his new-product introduction. Peter’s ruthless boss and supervisor, Charlene (Faye Dunaway), whose job is also at risk, wants a complete report by Peter on her desk no later than noon on the following day. When Peter’s male personal assistant, Lance, takes off, he frets that he will never make the deadline. But to Peter’s good fortune, the company assigns him a temp worker, the brunette, seductive-looking Kris Bolin (Lara Flynn Boyle).
Kris soon proves herself to Peter by solving two marketing problems with Peter’s new product in short order over the next few days. Peter and Kris soon bond over their lunch breaks where Kris tells Peter about herself: she has an office-skills degree from Stanford and has a husband and young daughter.
Kris, being ruthlessly efficient, brilliant and unflaggingly loyal to Peter, hopes to use her skills to become his permanent secretary. Despite Kris’s possessive attitude, Peter cannot seem to do without her, nor can the rest of the office. Not only does Kris help him deliver his report to Charlene on time, she passes on credit to him for her own ideas.
However, soon various people around the office meet with unfortunate “accidents,” beginning when Peter’s assistant, Lance, returns the following week and, while attempting to fix a paper shredder during his first day back, is maimed when his right hand gets stuck and mutilated, forcing him to take permanent leave. Peter starts to note the deaths of some of his rivals for advancement in the company, such as Hartsell (Oliver Platt), who is found dead in his stalled car on a busy expressway after being stung by a wasp.
Another few days later, Jasser (Dwight Schultz) is found in his office after hanging himself in an apparent suicide. Peter becomes to suspect that Kris is responsible for these deaths, but he cannot prove it or get anyone to listen to him due to his recovering mental state. Nevertheless, the deaths of the executives lay the groundwork for Peter’s own unearned promotions.
Meanwhile, Peter is determined to win back his estranged wife (Maura Tierney), and begins to spurn all of Kris’s advances towards him. Peter, starting to distrust Kris, refuses her advances for a romantic relationship, as well as a professional partnership, and even just a simple friendship. Soon things for Peter begin to go wrong.
A marketing test for Peter’s new cookie product is horribly sabotaged when broken glass is added to the batter of the cookies, injuring random people who test the new product out. Peter becomes more convinced that Kris is behind the mayhem, but he still cannot get anyone to listen to him because everyone around him writes off his claims as more paranoia.
The Temp (1993)
Directed by: Tom Holland
Starring: Timothy Hutton, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dwight Schultz, Oliver Platt, Steven Weber, Colleen Flynn, Faye Dunaway, Scott Coffey, Maura Tierney, Lin Shaye
Screenplay by: Kevin Falls, Tom Engleman
Production Design by: Joel Schiller
Cinematography by: Steve Yaconelli
Film Editing by: Scott Conrad
Costume Design by: Tom Rand
Set Decoration by: Kim MacKenzie
Art Direction by: Gordon W. Clark
Music by: Frédéric Talgorn
MPAA Rating: R for language and scenes of violence.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: February 12, 1993
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