ViewGuide

Created Dec 10, 2011 01:57PM PST • Edited Apr 09, 2016 12:02AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Woe is me – what I felt watching The Company Men, perhaps because that’s how its characters felt. Notwithstanding its glorification of self-pity, the movie tells a surprisingly good story, touching on many familiar elements of our current woeful economy.

   People living beyond their means, in debt up to their eyeballs and driving leased cars they really can’t afford are one thread. Companies that put management’s interests above those of shareholders are another.

   When management thinks only of management, employees and shareholders get shafted.

   A big-name cast doing very good work in a production written and directed by the man behind ER and The West Wing gives the movie a middlebrow gloss and a modestly happy ending. Oops, sorry for that spoiler. Even so, don’t watch this sucker expecting to be uplifted. In that regard, it’s like most coverage of the economy today – overcast with a bit of sunshine peaking through.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Kevin Costner impresses the most amongst a cast of solid actors. Costner’s fatuous reputation is belied here by a purposeful performance as a hammer-wielding general contractor, a no-nonsense kind of guy. He should do more roles like this.

   Tommy Lee Jones never gives a bad performance, upholding that streak here as an up-by-his-bootstraps executive trying to make sense of a late career fall.

   Ben Affleck’s comeback from Costner-eque fatuousness is complete. Rosemarie DeWitt resonates as his good wife.

   Chris Cooper personifies weary-eyed American soulfulness.

   Maria Bello makes a nifty corporate hack.

   Craig T. Nelson is always a welcome sight, here as an entrepreneur who has succumbed to the comforts of tycoonhood.

   Eamonn Walker demonstrates great screen presence as an out-of-work engineer. This guy should be a star.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    John Wells is mostly a TV writer-director. This manipulative middlebrow film shows why.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

17. Sex Innocent 1.2

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    No way a guy earning under $200 grand cossets his family of four in a 4,000 square foot colonial like Ben Affleck’s character does, even if he’s got an interest-only mortgage. Plus, sales managers at his level pull down at least $250 in a bad year, seven figures in a good one.

    Could it be that John Wells wanted to paint his put-upon hero as earning well below Barack Obama’s $250K/year “millionaire” class? Perish the thought.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.6

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0