Review: Write When You Get Work
Friday, November 23, 2018 at 11:01AM 
For a film that starts with Finn Wittrock taking his shirt off, Write When You Get Work disappoints. He plays a New York City drifter working odd jobs and living off petty crime schemes. His ex (Rachel Keller) has left that life behind after the break-up and is now trying to make it working at a prestigious school in the wealthy Upper East Side. Of course their worlds collide as he tries another get-rich scheme that involves one of the parents of the kids in her school (Emily Mortimer)...
Writer and director Stacy Cochran (1996’s Boys with Winona Ryder) has a knack for the inner workings and behind doors maneuvering and machinations at the school. Those scenes are fun to behold. However we spend the bulk of the film following an implausible romance. The school could have been fertile ground for a satire of commentary on the socio-economic disparity between the film’s characters.
Wittrock makes for an appealing lead and his charm goes a long way to keep the audience engaged despite the overall disturbing behavior of his character. This is a movie that wants us to think breaking and entering is cute. A bit dangerous but intoxicating. Really? If I woke up in the middle of the night and found an ex in my bed, I’d scream so hard I’d wake up the whole neighborhood. Even if he looked like Wittrock.
Back at the school Mortimer acts her heart out as a woman unraveling. Her scenes have an intensity that raises the stakes for the audience. I got invested in her story, even if the film is more interested in the listless romance between Wittrock and Keller.
Write When You Get Work is shot in Super 16mm by Oscar winner Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood, Nightcrawler) giving it a pleasing sheen that was a nice surprise that we don’t usually expect from small indies. Those are mostly shot in digital nowadays. However its narrative is a hodgepodge; a love story, a heist movie, social satire. Yet none of them work. The love story is creepy at times. The heist isn’t that exciting and has very low stakes . And the social satire has no bite.
Grade: C.
Write When You Get Work opens in theaters November 23 for a week-long run in New York City, followed by a multi-city cross country tour.
Reader Comments (11)
Finn Wittrock is just impossibly handsome. Like, I've seen him twice in person and I genuinely couldn't speak.
You had me at "Finn Wittrock taking his shirt off"
Finn Wittrock is unbelievably handsome 😍 Also, Emily Mortimer should have been Oscar nominated for LARS AND THE REAL GIRL. She is incredible in that movie.
finn wittrock sounds like a movie star on the flintstones
which makes more sense than someone that gorgeous being real
Bless Finn Wittrock. His and John Magaro’s consistent charms were the only part of the Big Short that I enjoyed.
loving that the comments are all about how so good looking Wittrock is! Deservedly so.
i once rode an elevator with him.
He has a really BIG head!
Big head full of TALENT
Good post! Thank you for sharing this interesting story about Finn Wittrock, We know that he is an American actor and screenwriter. Also, I have got some inspiration about the importance of writing from this post. Actually, I am a passionate writer. Now I am trying to improve my writing skill using this https://fixgerald.com/ plagiarism detector, It can help me to write unique and error-free articles. I want to be a professional writer and help students for improving their writing quality. Anyway, I appreciate the author for this helpful publication.
Ich habe lange nach einer Möglichkeit gesucht, im Internet Geld zu verdienen und hatte Glück, ich habe sie gefunden. Jetzt, da ich sicher bin, dass es echt ist, möchte ich es Ihnen empfehlen. Gründlich geprüftes Online-Casino spielautomatcasinos.at/casino/paysafe-card, wenn Sie wie ich von zu Hause aus arbeiten möchten, dann sollten Sie diese Seite besuchen. Ich bin sicher, Sie werden heute gerne zur Arbeit gehen.