|
|
| Home
Subscribe About Us HM News
|
The Company Men Stars: Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Craig T. Nelson, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt and Kevin Costner Director/Scriptwriter: John Wells Cinematography: Roger Deakins Composer: Aaron Zigman Weinstein Corporation Rating: R for language Running Length: 114 minutes Writer John Wells has come up with a complex script about corporate lay-offs. Not only are the senior staff members involved, but the younger branch, too, plus their families. Today’s society is a mobile one and not because they would want to be. Corporations are out to make a profit and let the staff fall where they may. Some are able to change their career and head in another direction, others don’t change well. Enthusiasm being in short supply. The Company Men addresses both sides of this coin with an all-star cast including Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper. The story centers around the GTX Corporation where Ben Affleck, a junior member, and Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones, senior members, work. Craig T. Nelson (in his smarmy best) is the CEO and a close personal friend of Jones. Things are going fine and each man is happy in his home, with spending money being no problem. Ben’s brother-in-law, played by Kevin Costner, owns his own business and we see what he has to do to keep things going. Costner has a supporting role in this film, takes the character of the self-made man and runs with it. When lay-offs begin because of down-sizing, it happens to everyone but them---then the axe falls. Ben is without a job and takes it hard. At first, he doesn’t tell his family and puts up a facade, but is soon found out. Wife goes back to work, smaller house, etc. and still he can't find a job. At the same time, Cooper and Jones think they are secure, but Nelson keeps whittling away at salaries (except his own) and soon these men, too, are feeling the pinch. It is a matter of time. Each man handles this a different way. All-thumbs Affleck eventually goes to work for Kevin, at Kevin’s small construction business. Cooper, too, puts up a pretence with his family and Jones and Nelson privately battle it out behind the scenes. We go with Affleck to seminars on writing resumes, how to dress for an interview and how to present oneself. Not easy for men who once headed entire departments. It is what happens next that the script goes down a different path and one you may be surprised at and not be prepared for. The actors handle the material with clarity, especially Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones, who have been in war films before and fought the enemy, but this time, it is the home front and their way of providing for their families that is at war with them. The Company Men is not a perfect film, and there are instances that seem coincidental, but you can feel the frustration here and director Wells wisely lets the camera dwell on actor's faces and just lets them do their thing. You want to cheer some and boo others. Greed is everywhere and no more evident than in a Board Room. Every man for himself and the word “friendship” is non-existent. Copyright 2011 Marie Asner
|
Copyright © 1996 - 2011 The Phantom Tollbooth
