Three scenes make this movie.

1. Skating and then finding the Goons
2. The mechanical Horse
3. The triumphant exit of the limo

At under 90 minute it felt short. And more to the point empty. Beyond those three scenes there's nothing else to really see. I'm glad I watched it but it's a hard sell to watch again. It's too shallow to have anything to say. Which is a shame because all the pieces are there for a charming movie that's a bit aged up from say Home Alone and not as overfilled with meaning as The Breakfast Club. It could have hit that nice middle with some sort of recurring them or cohesion between the various scenes. There's places to expand like the conversation about being happy and free vs having means and being trapped. Jim Dodge is interesting in part because in spite of Connelly looking amazing he seems to see her at a very attractive girl as maybe a third priority. His story line as a home based lout and a liar was ripe for the expanding on but the movie just kinda doesn't. Connelly's Josie complains that she's offending people but we never see this. She acts out because she feels trapped and while we don't need to see that per se it would have been nice to see something about her personality that was consistent and interesting. By the time someone knocks on the door tension should have been at it's peak up till then and instead I felt more tension when he glimpsed her on the initial skating scene. The movie just goes from place to place sometimes well sometimes not until the inevitable comes with zero foreshadowing or interesting aspects.

A deadbeat boy (Frank Whaley) gets stuck in a large store overnight with a beautiful rich girl (Jennifer Connelly).

Although written by John Hughes, it’s an almighty mess of a film without enough material to last even 80 minutes. Things go from slapstick comedy to romance to crime caper so quickly it’s hard to follow what’s going on but it’s all a cheap trick to blind you from the fact that, actually, nothing is going on.

The two leads lack much in terms of chemistry, probably because Connelly steals the film with looks alone. It’s hard to remember anything once you’ve seen her on a gyrating horse in a tank top…

There’s little else to mention in Career Opporunities, unfortunately. I suppose it’s interesting that they come from different backgrounds but are both at a dead end in life.

The film could have worked if they dropped the wacky burglars and instead actually hit the road together in the last half-hour (they do hatch a plan to do this in the film, but we see 20 seconds of it). The store could have been a metaphor for their lives, but they manage to escape and go where the wind takes them. Who knows what they’ll find along the way? Maybe they’ll find themselves!

Somebody get me Jennifer Connelly’s number we’re gonna make a sequel!

http://benoliver999.com/film/2016/01/21/careeropportunities/