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 The Company Men 

What grade would you give this film?
A 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
B 100%  100%  [ 3 ]
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Total votes : 3

 The Company Men 
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loyalfromlondon
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Post The Company Men
The Company Men

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The Company Men is an American drama film written and directed by John Wells. It premiered at the 26th Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2010 and had a one-week run in December 10, 2010 to be eligible for the year's Academy Awards. The film was commercially released in the United States and Canada on January 21, 2011.

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Mon Feb 07, 2011 10:57 am
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Post Re: The Company Men
Reminiscent of Jason Reitman's fantastic Up in the Air, The Company Men concerns three businessmen, played by Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, and Tommy Lee Jones, who lose their jobs at GTX, a Boston-based transportation and shipbuilding firm. Affleck's Bobby Walker is a twelve-year veteran at GTX, earning an annual salary of $160,000 at the time of his termination. Jones' Gene McClary has been there since the beginning; in fact, he is the CEO's (Craig T. Nelson) close friend and former college roommate, though he is unable to hold his tongue when he disagrees with his friend's harsh leadership. Written and directed by John Wells, a former ER producer and show runner, this contemplative and gentle film explores these proud men's post-pink-slip lives. This is Wells' first feature film, and it is a rather auspicious debut. Reporting from the trenches, he captures the sense of precarious dread which defines corporate America in this era of recession.

Though it flirts with an ensemble narrative in the vein of Syriana, showing a corporation in flux from different perspectives, Ben Affleck's character is the undeniable protagonist. The audience follows Bobby Walker's troubled transition from confident and successful to rudderless and unemployed. We watch as he clings to and then relinquishes symbols of his past--his Porsche, his golf club membership--and as he endures an enthusiastic, but unhelpful seminar and its cringe-inducing mantras ("I will win!"). We then follow him as removes his well-tailored suit, bites down, and joins his blue-collar brother-in-law's (Kevin Costner, good-humored and well-utilized) small construction crew. Affleck delivers a touching performance, continuing his career-rejuvenating run of successful turns both in front of and behind the camera. Rosemarie DeWitt, so superb in Rachel Getting Married, lends unblemished support as his concerned wife.

Though their characters are no less interesting, and their performances, of course, no less expert, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones are left with less developed roles. Consider the distracting and extraneous sub-plot charting an adulterous relationship between Jones' character and one played by Maria Bello, which goes nowhere of note. Faring even worse, the wife and daughter of Cooper's distressed Phil Woodward are seen at length in just one scene. Even if it resulted in a film longer than two hours, I wish these characters' personal lives had been granted more depth and detail. Although, Tommy Lee Jones is given a gift of a scene: a wistful monologue, delivered at a once-bustling, now-abandoned shipyard, eulogizing benevolence's role in the corporate culture in America. Jones, a pro at portraying righteous old men faced with a world changing in fast and frightening ways, nails each and every syllable.

The Company Men's cold-eyed portrait of the super-rich (private jets! $16,000 tables!) might be a tad too one-note, and its portrait of Costner's unpretentious laborer a shade too Capraesque, but the film rings true in general and is buoyed by terrific performances and an apropos subject handled with sensitivity and intelligence.

B+

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Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:29 am
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Post Re: The Company Men
The Company Men is an odd little hybrid of a movie - - it has a sharp insight into the inequities arising from the care and feeding of our corporate overlords, and yet has a score that seeks to smooth out the rough patches with an eerie charm.

It's Willy Loman finally getting hired and it turns out to be by Ricky Roma.

The Company Men unveil a horrifying vision of the false bill of goods we've been sold (and which we just keep on buying). And though there's a couple of muffled laughs in the script, there's no mistaking this melancholy tune turning dirge for anything but an elegy.

The acting is all solid, though with the assuredly diffuse story, nobody really gets to build up a full head of steam.

The direction is almost too languid, but it has to be to suit the style.

It's "good" in it's way, though I'm not going to need to see The Company Men again anytime soon.


4 out of 5.


Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:53 am
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Post Re: The Company Men
Bradley, did you find the Jones/Bello affair unnecessary and woefully underdeveloped?

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Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:34 pm
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Post Re: The Company Men
Gunslinger wrote:
Bradley, did you find the Jones/Bello affair unnecessary and woefully underdeveloped?

Yes, many ideas went underdeveloped in order to give a sweeping perspective of the theme. By the end, I was wishing for a tighter focus on less characters.

(On the plus side, they did manage to get Bello's shirt off for half a second!)


Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:56 pm
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Post Re: The Company Men
Not a bad film but also not very eventful or moving, and it didn't tie up the narratives as succinctly as it should, if at all. Decent cast. The leads (Affleck, Jones, and Cooper) kind of sleepwalk through it, though, with Affleck seeming a bit embarrassed at times. Costner and Bello have good supporting roles. Affleck's story is the best part of the film. And while a good guy, it is impossible to sympathise with Tommy Lee Jones's character, or Cooper's.


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