After the Axe

40-something year-old Biff Wilson (James B. Douglas) made a successful way in his career as an executive working for a Canadian food company. For 15 years, he devoted his heart and soul to the place, gained respect in the field and he was trying out for a higher position at the firm. He lost the promotion to a rival who later on fired him for so-and-so reason but you get a picture on why. In the flutuating business of corporate world, Biff has many disadvantages as an unemployed executive with a large experience yet it doesn't necesarily put him at the top of the game since he'll have to compete with younger, energetic folks but he tries to go back in the game, trying out for a similar job, similar position. What's in line for Biff and the new challenges he'll have to face after spending a safe decade in a corporative bubble? How much will he have to change along the way, or find ways to adapt himself to a new reality?

Biff Wilson is not a real character but the situations he faces here are completely real. And outside of his life, we follow other figures, real people who might help Biff with his new conquest. "After the Axe" is a reflective short documentary dealing with the problems and solutions faced by people who are fired from their jobs at a certain age and have to find ways to reconnect themselves with a world they might find it too harsh, too problematic and with many novelties, many technologies to deal with and also many different social skills as required by basically any field in the world.

We follow the man attending a course for fired executives who are trying to get back in the market, and during the course they'll learn to adapt themselves to the business world, how to present themselves to companies and people, and find ways to break out of their old shells. Tough break, I must say. That's the documentary parts where we follow similar courses and we see their approach in helping out such workers. This was way back in time, way before the internet and stuff so for more recent audiences everything that's presented looks so strange that it's easy to find humor and absurd in those things. Like the course, where there's a bell hanged on a wall which is played whenever an unexmployed executive gets hired for a potential company; or the mock interview he goes to (painful to watch).

Outside of the countless changes over the decades and the whole "that was then, this is now" mentality, which serves a great purpose in showing audiences how things were not so simple as most of us think it is when it comes to fight for a job, the whole drama of Biff is very relatable and always will be, even if you don't have a job like his. The pain of rejection, the sense of failure or inability to change, or even all the building up to confidence again, we've all been there. And Roberts is an amazing and charismatic actor to give life to this common man and you easily forget he's acting. I wonder about the rellocation counsellor, he's a real character but he sounds like an actor at times during the interview bits (didn't like him all that much, it gives the impression of not having much empathy).

There are many issues to be debated with this film, one can make countless comparison about their professional experiences that could or could not be exactly like the one shown. But I'd believe in it a little more in the film's cause when it comes to Biff that his desperation and frustration was so extreme after failing to get called back, or even his impatience with the course (given to him by the company that fired him) why he never tries out other things rather than working on his field?

Yes, he takes a step back from his dreamed presidential goal, applies himself to companies offering a lower salary, but when one thinks about needs and family to support one truly goes to do anything that pays. I'm not complaining about his tenacity and ambition, but I'm complaining about his excessive pride. Sometimes you have to step back, way back, in order to get a living. Otherwise it's the street corner...

There were a couple of other issues that didn't go nowhere (the health mentality of exercising and running as a way to survive in the executive field was empty; and the small religious congregation for jobless went the same way), but overall "After the Axe" is a meaningful experience that makes us reflect about life, work, future and how one can find means to deal with the thoughtless, heartless world of business and working relations. 8/10.