'Company Men' works hard at telling story of job loss
I came out of John Wells' drama “The Company Men” not particularly bowled over by its conventional, made-for-TV visuals and its finger-pointing at how selfish and greedy America's top CEOs can be.
But “The Company Men” did impress me with its optimistic view of the world, and belief in the American worker's ability not only to survive calamity, but to adapt and rebound for new sets of challenges in the market.
More than that, “The Company Men” tells a cautionary tale of people placing importance on all the wrong things in life, mainly, things. Stuff like possessions, bank accounts, stocks, bonds, houses, cars, club memberships, exotic vacations and expensive lunches.
It quietly illustrates — through the experiences of three corporate men fired from their lucrative jobs — the virtues of community, sacrifice and compassion.
So, I decided that in “The Company Men,” Wells has actually created an engaging Sunday morning sermon with moving pictures and an even more moving story.
Later, I found out that the producer/writer of “The West Wing,” “Shameless” and “E.R.” grew up the son of an Episcopal minister, and that cemented my assessment of his movie.
“The Company Men” takes us through the financial fire and economic brimstone of 2008 through the lives of three corporate employees of an international manufacturing conglomerate, GTX.
Hotshot executive Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) fails to notice a dour mood shift at his office one morning when he comes to work, bragging about his golf score.
He doesn't see it coming.
He packs up his things and returns to his expensive home in his expensive Porsche.
He tells his wife Maggie (a stellar Rosemarie DeWitt) to keep his firing secret until he can land another position.
Maggie instantly recognizes the danger that Bobby does not see, that they are too close to the financial edge.
Bobby doesn't know it, but Maggie will become his rock who helps him reframe his life's purpose while carefully tending to his fragile male ego.
Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) sees it coming.
The 30-year GTX vet becomes a sour, embittered man, told by a job counselor to stop smoking and dye his hair if he wants to compete with younger men.
“The world went on,” Phil says. “My life ended and nobody noticed.”
Gene McClary noticed.
McClary, played by Tommy Lee Jones with debilitating sorrow in his weathered eyes, sees everything coming, and tries to stop it.
His pleas to protect employees fall on the deaf ears of his best friend and old college roommate, GTX's CEO James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson), who refuses to stop construction on his new high-rise office building or seek any alternative to layoffs. (They're the best way to keep his company's stock up, he reasons.)
Although McClary has the corporate heart Salinger lacks, he's hardly a saint. He ignores his superficial, materialistic wife and prefers the carnal company of GTX human resources director Sally Wilcox (Maria Bello, easily the hottest HR head in America).
Mostly, “The Company Men” focuses on Affleck's dejected Bobby, forced not only to move in with his parents, but to accept a lowly construction job with his snippy brother-in-law (Kevin Costner), who thinks little of Bobby's arrogance and materialism.
“The Company Men” makes a dandy bookend to 2009's “Up in the Air,” told from the clinical point-of-view of George Clooney's corporate hatchet man.
Wells' restrained drama shows what happens to the people Clooney might have axed, and does it without histrionics or contrivance.
“The Company Men” tells a timely tale that allows us to fill in the moral to the story.
It's not at all difficult, especially with this tale having come from the son of an Episcopal minister.
<b>“The Company Men”</b>
★ ★ ★
<b>Starring:</b> Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner
<b>Directed by:</b> John Wells
<b>Other:</b> A Weinstein Company release. Opens at the ICON, River East 21 and Webster Place in Chicago, and at the Evanston Century 12. Rated R for language, nudity. 104 minutes