In Good Company Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)December 13th, 2004
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In Ocean's Twelve, Topher Grace has a cameo where he laments his career choices, specifically how he totally phoned in his role in "the Dennis Quaid film." The picture he's referring to, which I saw just 12 hours after Twelve, is In Good Company, the latest from Paul and Chris Weitz (About a Boy).
Don't let Company's late-December release date fool you: This isn't one of those Oscar-quality projects that are dropped into theatres after Christmas just to qualify for this year's awards season. It's a predictable, pedestrian dud - one of those films in which nothing happens that a person with even low-to-moderate brain activity can't figure out in the first five minutes. What's worse, Company's story preaches the evils that are big corporate behemoths, and shows the havok wreaked by business mergers and takeovers. You wouldn't expect a picture with that kind of message to be filled with what might be the year's most obvious product placement, would you? Expect it if you see Company, which happens to be financed and distributed by an enormous conglomerate.
Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow) plays Dan Foreman, the 51-year-old head of advertising sales for a popular sports magazine. When the magazine' s parent company is taken over by GlobeCom, Dan is demoted and discovers his new boss is Carter Duryea (Grace, p.s.), a 26-year-old corporate ass-kisser, has absolutely no experience with sports magazines or ad sales. Dan has other troubles, as well. His wife (Marg Helgenberger, CSI: Topeka) is knocked up, and his daughter (Scarlett Johansson, A Love Song for Bobby Long), is transferring from state school to the less tuition-friendly NYU. These added financial burdens make Dan increasingly more and more anxious as he wonders if his position will be eliminated by the smarmy, buzzword-spouting Carter.
Carter, meanwhile, lives in an expensive but extremely cold-looking modern home with his wife of seven months (Selma Blair, A Dirty Shame). But she leaves Carter because he pays more attention to work than her. This renders Carter, who is already in over his head in his new position, rather helpless and looking for guidance in both his professional and personal life. Wonder if he'll find it in.I don't know.Dan? Maybe Carter will even strike up a relationship with Dan's daughter? Maybe she'll set him on the straight and narrow? Maybe everything will end happily? Check, check and check.
Company is, I think, meant to be an Oscar vehicle for Quaid, but his performance, while admirable in that he's playing his age, just isn't that strong compared to the pool of likely nominees (Giamatti, Carrey, Foxx, Depp, Hanks, DiCaprio, Bacon). While not exactly "called in," Grace isn't nearly as effective here as he was in p.s. or even Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!. Even Johansson fails to flourish with the weak material. File this one under Wait for DVD. And even then, you might want to wait a little more.
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