Marvin Ellis

Marvin Ellis runs the real estate office where Jessica Huang comes to work, an easy, sunbaked boss with a salesman's grin and a low bar for effort. He is friendly in the way of a man who has never had to try very hard, and he clearly has no idea what he is about to be up against.

Ray Wise brings that unplaceable, faintly sinister geniality he's perfected elsewhere and turns it comic here, playing Marvin's laid-back cluelessness as pure sitcom oxygen against Jessica's ferocious drive. He's a small role, but Wise makes every scene he's in about the gap between his effort and hers.