Last week I asked if 1965 would bring about ”business as usual” to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, this week we got a resounding “yes” in “The Rejected.”

We start things off with a conference call between Don, Roger and Lee Garner Junior. You see Junior is unsettled by a few new restrictions placed, apparently by his own lawyers, on Lucky Strike advertising including “no more smoking teenagers.” How progressive. (Have I mentioned that I can’t help but want to smoke every time that I watch an episode of Mad Men?) During said conference call Don juggles Junior on the telephone, Peggy and Faye at his desk , and drinks at his bar with the ease of a well seasoned circus clown (but five thousand times less creepy).

Good ol’ Pete gets the news that Pond’s has squeezed his Clearasil account out of SCDP because of a perceived conflict of interest and Pete must deliver the news to his father-in-law. Expectantly Pete protests but Lane explains that the Pond’s account (around $2 million) will be much more profitable than Clearasil. In a failed attempt to break the news to the father of his bride, Pete learns that Trudy is pregnant. Tom, Trudy’s dad, feels terrible for leaking the news (Trudy had a few excuses as to why she hadn’t told Pete yet) but Pete’s too happy to care who the messenger was and will talk Clearasil on another day. When that day finally arrived Pete laid it all out and Tom delivered the new 6 million dollar advertising deal with Vicks Chemical, Clearasil’s parent company. In a big week for Pete he also mends bridges with Kenny, thanks and no thanks to Harry. Kenny has Mountain Dew and hopes to do to the Dew and parent company Pepsi what Pete did to Clearasil.

Back at the office, in the elevator, Peggy meets a photo editor from LIFE magazine who shares her apparent taste in nude photography. One thing leads to another and Joyce, the photo editor, makes a pass at Peggy in a hipster underground club (or was it an art gallery?) and Peggy has to explain that she’s got a boyfriend. He’s a renter. Of course Peggy find out about Pete’s big news (the baby, not Vicks) and she put on a happy face, congratulating Pete.

During a focus group for Pond’s moderated by Dr. Faye, with an “E”, Allison finally breaks under the pressure of wearing a happy face and storms out of the office. Her former position will be temporarily filled by the elderly Mrs. Blankenship until Joan can find a worthy replacement. Dr. Faye finds that in the end women still just want to get married and that that is the angle SCDP should take with Pond’s. Don doesn’t care what the focus group revealed because he wants to inform the target of their desires not react to old wants and feed old desires. Doesn’t seem that Don cares two cents about Dr. Faye’s work, so how long do you think she has at SCDP?

What’s going to happen with sweet Peggy?

Are we going to be seeing more of Kenny or Mountain Dew Pepsi?

“Did you get pears?”

If you work in any sort of service to the public, your fate is not your own. And our characters in this film, The Promotion, have very little control over their own fate. The film opens with the main character, Doug (Sean William Scott, or “Stifler”, for some of you), seems really slow. And I don’t mean in the “special needs” way, I just mean… well, almost sedated. He works in a grocery store (the fictional Donaldson’s), where everything is quiet, slow, and almost sterile-looking, except for the occasional employee helping himself to store products (picture a 400-pound guy lifting up his shirt to use deodorant from the shelf, and then returning it). And, after an introduction, you get the impression that the environment created by the store has browbeaten Doug to the point of becoming a drone with a Donaldson’s-brand drooling grin on his face. The daily brunt of confrontations Doug has no chance of ever winning have defeated him: rude customers, kids in the parking lot who intimidate everyone, bitchy customer comment cards, and on and on. But Doug finds a light at the end of the tunnel that seems to wake him up – the promise of a new store opening that has an opening for manager. And even Doug’s current boss claims Doug is a shoo-in for it.

That is, until, Doug is given another win-less confrontation: Richard, a seemingly golden employee from a sister store in Canada. And that shoo-in has become a question mark. Doug already had his heart set on a home, which he can’t afford without the promotion. Richard seems like the new shoo-in when he easily schmoozes the higher-ups, steals chat time with a representative from Pepsi, and begins offering advice to co-workers. But then, we see that Richard is at the mercy of the store just as much as Doug is. Richard falls for jokes played on him by Hispanic co-workers, is blamed for misunderstandings, and generally has a gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And so a sort of war starts between the two to get the upper hand for the promotion. But, by war, I mean a sort of slow-moving, petty, immature back and forth limp-wristed slap fest. And it works.

The Promotion is a very dry, dark comedy that moves very thoughtfully and deliberately. And that’s a good thing. I definitely walked in expecting a DUH DUH comedy after associating Scott with Dukes of Hazzard and American Pie, and associating Reilly with Walk Hard and Talladega Nights – and it wasn’t. Ads and reviews suggested the film was a smart, clever, comedy – and it wasn’t. And I liked it.

For the first time I can remember, I just went out of my way to fill out a customer comment card to leave positive feedback. Because, really, most of us fill one out when something royally pisses us off. They’re less comment cards than they are bitch cards. But I figured, after seeing this movie, my karma could stand to have some good vibes sent my way.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆