The Efficiency Expert Reviews

An amusing, if sentimental, look at one small battlefield in the war for the global marketplace, THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT depicts Australia, or more specifically the town of Spotswood, Victoria, as a preserve of eccentricity and human kindness. We first see Spotswood's workers through the unsympathetic, indeed shocked, eyes of Wallace (Anthony Hopkins), a three-piece-suited expert who seems to specialize, for a hefty commission, in preparing ailing businesses for sale to devouring super-national conglomerates. The Balls Moccasin Factory in Spotswood reminds Wallace of his grandfather's old house. The workers, most of whom seem to wear moccasins, he notices, are a jovial, cheery lot who chat amiably during work hours and converge en mass on the cafeteria for a lunch hour that resembles a cross between a knitting circle and a town hall meeting. Presiding over this gentle anarchy is Mr. Ball (Alwyn Kurts), a paternal boss who thinks of expanding his firm and talks of steady profits to a bewildered Wallace, who stares in amazement at the thin, handwritten ledger books that comprise the firm's total business records. While most of the adult male employees spend a considerable part of their time preparing for a miniature car race, young Carey (Ben Mendelsohn) cannot help thinking and looking at Mr. Ball's daughter, Cheryl (Rebecca Rigg), whose tight dress is at a contrast with the relatively tomboyish Wendy (Toni Collette), an old friend and fellow worker who notes Carey's interest with growing dismay. Wallace is friendly with the Balls employees, but distant--after all, he knows all too well what his recommendations often mean, and if he doesn't, he has the ugly labor unrest at nearby Durmack's factory to remind him. He is doubly shocked when he discovers that his colleague has multiplied the number of suggested firings in order to speed up the deal with an American firm from which they will profit. Wallace's shock deepens when his home and car are vandalized. By contrast the lads at the Balls shipping room are all kindness and light, eagerly offering to repair Wallace's car and giving him a lift in the factory van. The changes he had suggested, including partitions and staggered lunch hours, are calmly ignored or neatly avoided. Unfortunately, an ambitious young salesman, Kim (Russell Crowe), Carey's tough rival for Cheryl's attentions, has stolen a set of books to show Wallace, accounts that paint a far more accurate and grimmer picture of the old firm's finances. Mr. Ball, it seems, has kept his plant in the fiscal black by selling off nearby properties. Wallace must tell a tearful Mr. Ball that he will have to let go of half his employees, but requests a week's delay in the promulgation of the cuts. In the meantime, the shipping room lads ask if Wallace could help them in the forthcoming miniature car races, since one of the team has hurt his thumb in the repair of Wallace's Rover. Initially reluctant, Wallace agrees and, in the great filmic revelatory tradition, enjoys himself thoroughly as model cars are hurled through the air in imitation of some Hollywood chase film. That pleasure soon has effects as Wallace revises his suggestions to Mr. Ball. Directed in the style of the post war British comedies from Ealing Studios, THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT has several throwaway scenes like Carey's young brother Kevin (Gary Adams), reading Orwell and Tolstoy late into the night. But director Mark Joffe, having previously worked on a documentary about the great Australian comic Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage, does display a nice flair for comedy. Of special note, the film's primary location, an abandoned factory, was filled by production designer Chris Kennedy with the findings from old factories, rummage shops and garage sales to create a wondrous atmosphere of antiquated equipment and dated advertising posters.