In Good Company Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)December 27th, 2004
IN GOOD COMPANY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
IN GOOD COMPANY, by writer and director Paul Weitz, the co-writer and co-director of ABOUT A BOY, is an exquisite gem of a movie, whose slow and delicate rhythms instantly call to mind LOST IN TRANSLATION, both of which happen to feature Scarlett Johansson. This time her role is a modest, supporting one that isn't very demanding, but she delivers a fine performance nonetheless. Although you'll see her as well as the film's two leads, Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace, in the posters, this is a writer and director's movie, not a star vehicle. The movie's enjoyments, of which there many, come from its sharply written script and its beautifully nuanced -- and yes -- slow and delicate pacing.
Dan Foreman (Quaid) is a soon to be 52-year-old man with a lot of unexpected changes in his life. Once a low-key vice president of ad sales at a big sports magazine in New York City, his life is in the process of being turned upside-down. He has an accidental new baby on the way, just when he thought he and his wife (Marg Helgenberger) were soon to be empty nesters. He has a daughter transferring to an expensive university in Manhattan. And he has a new boss, who is literally just half of Dan's age. Carter Duryea (Grace) is the new kid on the block at Dan's company, which has just been taken over by a media mogul named Teddy K (Malcolm McDowell), clearly patterned on Rupert Murdock. Not only is Dan's company being taken over, but his job is as well by Carter, whose previous experience wasn't in magazine ad sales at all. He rose to stardom in the wireless division of Teddy K's empire by devising a killer strategy for hawking cell phones to the 5 and under set. Hint: it's all about the right ring tone when your marketing mobile phones to people too young read. Dinosaur sounds are best. Nothing like a T-Rex's roar to get the attention of the inattentive set.
Carter is a successful rocket whose glare is awesome to behold at work, at least that's what he'd like to think. Actually, he is filled with self-doubts. His marriage of seven months to Kim (Selma Blair) went downhill after the second date, and she leaves before her character even gets partially established. Poor Carter, who is rich in money but little else, can't even get his one pet, a disinterested goldfish, to pay him any attention.
Like most people with miserable private lives, Carter pours in at the office, loving nothing better than trying to fire up his staff by calling them all in for a needless Sunday meeting. From his first meet-your-new-boss staff meeting, he is a disaster. "We need to be synchronized and synergized!" he explains the strategy to his troops, as his secret formula to boosting their ad sales by twenty percent. As the employees whisper to each other during the meeting, trying to guess who will be fired first (who won't be fired would have been a better question), he asks an employee in the back of the room if he's psyched. The surprised guy, who turns out to be the janitor, gives Carter the answer he is looking for. Carter feeds his unbounded enthusiasm and drive with non-stop jolts of java in the largest size available. Later in the story, Alex asks if he drinks coffee, to which he responds, "Normally I just hook up an IV."
The movie is full of such zingers, and I found myself laughing hard and often, albeit sometimes alone in the theater. It was as if the comedy was made just for me with every joke chosen to hit my funny bone best. But I suspect others will have the same strong affinity to this delightful and sardonic tale.
It's also quite a touching story. If you suspect that Carter might end up dating his boss's -- sorry, easy mistake -- his employee's daughter, you'd, of course, be right. And if you are going to guess that Carter and Dan might find some kinship in their awkward relationship, well, of course. The complications that ensue from Carter's relationship with dad and daughter feel honest and don't quite follow the path you might expect.
One of the movie's best little moments comes when Carter and Alex first meet romantically at a café in the village. A creative writing major, she confesses that her ability to succeed is severely limited since she is "cursed with a functional family." Carter, on the other, barely had a family in the traditional sense of the word -- which probably explains the accuracy in his self-description when he tells Alex that he is "an emotionally guarded, anal retentive asshole."
This charming and sometimes dark movie is an easy one to fall in love with. It's also one that's worth savoring again and again and is one of the best movies of the year.
IN GOOD COMPANY runs a captivating 1:49. It is rated PG-13 for "some sexual content and drug references" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, January 14, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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