Doug (Seann William Scott of AMERICAN PIE) and Richard (John C. Reilly of CHICAGO) are two assistant managers competing for a promotion to head the new Donaldson store.  Both need the money for different reasons and as the film progresses towards the board’s final choice for the new position of manager of the new store, Doug and Richard get more and more under each other’s skin.

THE PROMOTION has potential to be a satire on the corporate world but Conrad decided to play his story as a study on how two normal but quite different characters cope with work and life stress.  Conrad depicts both characters with faults though trying to making a decent better living for their families.  Doug is the cool, handsome, younger one while Richard is middle-aged, nerdy and generally a loser but with a good heart.  Conrad makes it almost impossible for the audience to like Richard (he fouls up during the company retreat; curses in front of his child; forever listening to self-help tapes) while making him a prime contention for the promotion.  Doug’s faults (berating Richard is ok as Richard has more faults) are generally acceptable. 

Performance-wise, the actors are bound by Conrad’s material.  The dead-pan, low key humor means the actors have to shine in subtler ways.  Reilly is awful as Richard putting an unbelievable Canadian Quebec accent.  First thing that throws real Quebecers off is the pronunciation of the province of Quebec.  The French pronounces ‘Que” as ‘ker’ not ‘cue’. 

THE PROMOTION will have a tough time with the critics.  For me, I was terribly put off during the first half of the film with Conrad’s weird camera angles, inconsistent portrayal (favourable or unfavourable) of the two protagonists and the film’s generally unfunny low key humor.  The films picks up during the second half as it slowly becomes apparent that Conrad did not intend his film primarily as a comedy.  His film works best at a few keen observations of the work place (the fake poster of employee of the month cutting the cheese; the customer feedback cards).

THE PROMOTION ultimately fails to satisfy – in both its ending and delivery of a message.  What is odd though is the fact that THE PROMOTION is still compelling to watch because there is a Doug and Richard in each one of us – in that we have behaved in the same way in one form or other.