Dolly Parton Flashback: Nine to Five (1980)

I had never seen Nine to Five. Please don’t hurt me.

The Colin Higgins 1980 film is not at all what I expected it to be. It started off like an episode of Mad Men, quickly shifted into what looked like Kevin Lima’s Enchanted, and then turned into an hilarious slice of good ole comedy of errors. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are wonderful as always, but Dolly Parton lights up the screen with her first film role ever as Doralee Rhodes. She evokes a bounciness that has eventually become her trade mark.

Yes, the actresses were immortally talented and the comedic timing wonderful, but the film certainly has its drawbacks. First, there’s no resolution that follows any semblance of logic. Some Dues Ex Machina arrives and solves all the problems in the last four minutes? No thank you, Mr. Higgins, I don’t like poor storytelling. No ending could ever feel more tacked on than a dues ex machina. Also, I wasn’t aware that getting promoted would keep a man from calling the cops on the women that kidnapped him for over four weeks. Perhaps Mr. Hart and I just don’t think the same, or perhaps Nine to Five just doesn’t make sense. Then again perhaps I should be blamed for seeking logic and realism in a movie where people mix up sweet and low with rat poison and steal bodies with no consequence. Anyway, it dragged in the middle and the end disappointed, but I still got to watch Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda get stoned. Hilarious.

My mother would love this movie. If she doesn’t already.

Until the end, the Mended Blend.