In the depressed town of Orridge, deep in the American Rust Belt, New Liberty Plastics is the last factory standing. This heartfelt if occasionally maudlin drama, “Working Man,” begins on the plant’s closing day, and the story follows a company old-timer, Allery Parkes (Peter Gerety).
For Allery, the muscle memory of factory labor seems to have settled into a trance: Without his job, he seems lost. He’s ill-suited to retirement, unable to sit still despite the nervous accommodations of his wife, Iola (a very welcome Talia Shire). As if under an enchantment, Allery wanders back to the plant, where he jimmies the lock and completes a day of work alone. Soon Allery’s outspoken co-worker, Walter (Billy Brown), joins his daily pilgrimage, and Walter recruits all of the factory floor workers to return with them. An unconventional labor story, the movie doesn’t bask in the triumph of rebellion; instead, it’s an introspective portrait of men for whom working is a replacement for living.
It’s also a coming-of-age film about the second adolescence of men at retirement age who must find a way to define themselves when the structure of work has been stripped away. The writer-director, Robert Jury, pairs Allery’s crumbling sense of self with images from the town’s decaying infrastructure, lingering on rusted fences and the boxy utilitarian homes of laborers without work. If the writing is sometimes sentimental, the simple familiarity of the visuals strikes an honest note. Allery must evolve, lest he become as obsolete as his surroundings.
Working Man
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. Rent or buy on FandangoNOW, iTunes and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
