Movies You May Have Missed: ‘At Your Service’ Review (2011)
Welcome to the latest installment in our regular Movies You May Have Missed series here on Nerdly, in which I highlight some of, what I think, are the best movies that have flown under the radar of many or have been “forgotten” in the intervening years since its release. This time round it’s At Your Service, aka Servitude, a 2011 Canadian comedy about the restaurant industry.
Stars: Joe Dinicol, Rachel Skarsten, John Bregar, Enrico Colantoni, David Foley, Margot Kidder, Lauren Collins, Aaron Ashmore, Kristen Hager, Linda Kash | Written by Michael Sparaga | Directed by Warren P Sonoda
If there’s two things I’m a fan of it’s Ryan Reynolds’ movies and Canada. Put those two together and you get At Your Service, the story of a group of servers and staff at a franchise chain restaurant (much like Ryan Reynolds’ Waiting) who have one last wild night at their jobs after learning they’re all about to get fired and possibly NOT rehired after the restaurant they work at is redeveloped by it’s new German owners.
Filmed in Canada with a cast that includes a TON of familiar faces, including Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars), David Foley (Kids in the Hall), Margot Kidder (Superman 1 & 2), Lauren Collins (Degrassi: The Next Generation), Aaron Ashmore (Locke and Key) and lead by Joe Dinicol (Arrow, Blindspot), At Your Service is very similar in theme and tone to Waiting – which is pretty much a given seeing that the concept of rebelling waiters and waitresses in movies is a VERY small genre! However the film is not a pastiche of Reynolds’ film, it feels very much like a companion piece instead.
Whereas Waiting was all about the servers confrontational attitudes to each other and the customers, At Your Service is more about the annoying nuances of the customers than come into these character’s workplace – the parents who want to use the restaurant as a babysitter, the poor tippers who demand the earth and expect to give nothing for it, and the customers who ask and ask and ask to the point of distraction. Yes, there’s still confrontation – especially when the staff find out they’re becoming unemployed – but this is more about how this group face adversity, and how they cope with life at the restaurant. But it’s all done with very Canadian sensibilities, none of the humour is mean-spirited or TOO gross-out, sitting on just the right side of “polite” to be really funny but never bitchy.
Ultimately, At Your Service is the kind of mid-budget comedy that seems to have floundered in the streaming era and post the myriad of direct to DVD sequels to those late 90s/early 2000s R-rated teen comedies. It is the kind of film that I – honestly – love; the kind of film that, once of a day, would’ve been the mainstay of my DVD collection. I’m just glad it seems to finally have been given the HD treatment, even if it’s been dumped to digital services rather than receiving a physical release.
**** 4/5
A Canadian take on the likes of Clerks and Waiting, At Your Service, aka Servitude, is available to rent or buy on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video now.
