The basic premise of The Secret of my Success is that if you are willing to bend the rules, break the laws, shelve your morals and bang your own auntie, you can get anywhere in business.
A hard sell I might admit in a light comedy, but when your lead is as adorable as Michael J Fox, then how is a bunch of immoral illegal stuff anyway really that bad anyway?
Fox plays Brantley Foster (he must’ve been beaten a lot at school), a country boy who moves to NYC for opportunity, only to have the rug pulled from under him.
After cadging a job in a corporate mailroom, Brantley carries out a great many sackable offences before swinging for the fences. He adopts the identity of another Senior Executive and immediately starts making big decisions on behalf of the company.
In doing so he catches the eye of the beautiful female executive, and his older Boss’s wife, Brantley’s own auntie…
So again, Brantley – our hero – is running two women simultaneously under a false identity, while ripping off his boss, who happens to be his uncle and the man who gave him his big break.
But he’s Michael J Fox! Better yet late 80s MJF. with perfectly feathered hair!
It’s a testament to the powers of Fox and silly lightweight comedy that The Secret of my Success is actually a very enjoyable and often funny film, mixed messages aside. Fox is in full effect as the young go getter willing o do anything to get to the too, and everyone else is essentially his comedic foil through the film.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. Fox might have been impossible to dislike in the 80s and 90s, here he is very easy to like.