Never quite worthy of its stars, 9 to 5 nevertheless entertains because of what they bring: sheer will (Lily Tomlin), joie de vivre (Dolly Parton), and stamina (Jane Fonda). Set at a corporate behemoth named Consolidated Companies, the film centers on three female colleagues who indulge in vengeful fantasies against their boss, a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” (Dabney Coleman, delightfully dim). I say “stamina” in regard to Fonda because she has to persevere in the least interesting part, that of a housewife-turned-secretary new to the corporate world. Aside from a Lucille Ball-style showdown with the office copy machine, Fonda plays third fiddle to Tomlin, as the seething office manager who is infinitely more capable than the boss, and Parton, whose smile wins a thousand hearts and deflects twice as many harassing come-ons. Parton’s movie career was sadly short; certainly she wouldn’t have gone on to give Meryl Streep competition at the Oscars, but she contained enough personality, self-awareness, and comic timing to anchor a handful of smart star vehicles if she had been given the chance. 9 to 5 is not that. Although it has a few pointed asides about the inequities faced by women in the workforce, the movie mostly comes off as cartoonish—whether that’s the literally animated fantasy sequence involving Tomlin’s character or the sight of Coleman being hoisted to the ceiling in a harness. Fonda, Parton, and Tomlin are game for all of it, but capable of so much more. Directed by Colin Higgins, who wrote the screenplay with Patricia Resnick.
(8/26/2026)
