Janice Beard: 45 WPM is an odd little film, one that starts out with quite a bit going for it, but never really puts all its ducks in a row. Narrated by the character of Janice herself, the opening scenes fill us in on Janice's decidedly peculiar childhood. Since her mother is mired in depression and refuses to set foot outside the house, Janice (Eileen Walsh) resorts to extravagant flights of fancy to keep her mother interested in life in the outside world. One day, when she learns that there might be a treatment that could help her mother, Janice packs her bags and moves from Scotland to London, determined to find a job and earn the money to pay for her mother's treatment. This is all the set-up, and it's handled in a fairly economical manner; what follows can be described as Janice's escapades in the working world as she discovers that her free spirit and tendency to stretch the truth make her a less than ideal office worker.

Especially with a fairly clever opening like that, how is it possible for a movie that's only 78 minutes long to sag in the middle? I suspect it's because the filmmakers never really settled on what they wanted Janice Beard: 45 WPM to be. Is it a quirky look at life in the city, from Janice's point of view? Some of the scenes point in this direction, like the amusing sequence in which Janice "interviews" herself, imagining herself in a decidedly more glamorous job than "temporary typist." Her fabricated videos home also push the film in this direction, giving us a glimpse of Janice's fundamental good-heartedness as well as her fanciful imagination.

It seems like the material for "life from Janice's point of view" must have dried up, however, because the film shifts into a different mode, one that balances awkwardly between "romantic comedy" and "comedy of errors." On the one hand, Janice gets a crush on Sean (Rhys Ifans), the mail boy in the office; on the other hand, she gets drawn into miscellaneous conflicts with the catty women in the typing pool. Loosely tying all of this together is an awkward plot involving industrial espionage and attempted sabotage of her employer's new product launch, taking Janice Beard in yet another direction, that of "spy farce." The plot is really quite awkward, jerking along in a fairly unconvincing manner.

Even if it does sag in the middle, in the end Janice Beard: 45 WPM is only 78 minutes long, which makes it watchable despite its pacing problems. The filmmakers may not have really known where they were going, but the conclusion is cute; it's a fluffy film but one you probably won't regret having seen.

The DVD

Video

I hemmed and hawed a bit about what rating to give Janice Beard for image quality, and finally decided that it was just barely worth three stars. On the plus side, the film is presented in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, and it has been anamorphically enhanced. The image is clean and generally clear, though not particularly sharp. For the most part, though, the film has a bland, slightly muted appearance; while the colors seem reasonably correct, the image is rather lifeless. What matters in the end is that it's watchable; if you take my advice and just rent it anyway, the image quality is not a big issue.

Audio

Viewers have a choice of Dolby 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 soundtracks, although there's not much difference between the two. The sound is reasonably clear; I missed a few lines of dialogue here and there, but that's at least partly attributable to mumbling actors with strong Scottish accents. The surround channels on the 5.1 track are used occasionally but never to any particular effect.

Extras

If you don't mind annoying animated menu, you'll find a few special features of interest on the DVD. There's a 16-minute featurette that's only mildly interesting at best, as it's done in the promotional style and liberally laced with clips from the film. The 12-minute "sound bite" section is more worthwhile for fans of the film, as it has short interview clips with actors Eileen Walsh, Rhys Ifans, and Patsy Kensit, writer Clare Kilner, and producer Judy Counihan. Lastly, we get a photo gallery and a trailer; two trailers for other Empire films also play at the start of the DVD. (Fortunately, they're skippable.)

Final thoughts

Janice Beard: 45 WPM has its charming moments; it's a light-weight comedy that's hampered by a wandering focus but that does show a generous dose of creativity. All in all, it's worth a rental.