Susan Granger’s review of “The Company Men” (The Weinstein Company)
As relevant as today’s headlines, this psychological drama is about several generations of executives pushed down the corporate ladder, forcing them to take jobs several rungs lower.
Beginning in the fall of 2008, thirtysomething sales exec Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) discovers his future is going to be far more difficult than his past when he’s ‘downsized’ out of Global Transportation Systems, a Boston-based ship-building firm. While he’s still in denial, arrogantly driving his shiny Porsche and trying to sneak in a golf game at the country club, his savvy wife Maggie (Rosemary DeWitt) immediately begins reorganizing family expenditures, placing their heavily-mortgaged McMansion on the market, while his blue-collar brother-in-law Jack (Kevin Costner) urges him to consider joining his small company doing construction work. Bobby’s veteran co-worker Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) sinks into deep despair when his pink slip comes, since he’s considerably older and even more bewildered about the harsh realities of the bleak job market, particularly when his outplacement counselor glibly advises him to dye his gray hair, delete his Vietnam War service from his resume and not mention any jobs he’s held before the 1990s. Meanwhile, cantankerous Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), the outspoken co-founder of the company, is ruthlessly dismissed by his best friend, cutthroat CEO James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson), who is only concerned about satisfying the shareholders. Ironically, while Gene’s pretentious wife has been preoccupied with their palatial estate, corporate jet and luxurious holidays, he’s been carrying on an affair with the glamorous GTS hatchet woman (Maria Bello).
First time feature-film writer/director John Wells (writer/producer of TV’s “E.R.”) elicits intelligent, insightful performances from his acting ensemble which radiates fear, confusion, disbelief, disgust, anger and, finally, acceptance and, perhaps, hope. And cinematographer Roger Deakins visually captures the upper middle-class angst amidst the sleek offices and board rooms of the company’s recently renovated headquarters.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Company Men” is a powerful, provocative, poignant 9, shrewdly reflecting the emotional savagery of the worldwide economic meltdown of the past three years.
