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| IN GOOD COMPANY |
| 01.16.05 (10:51 am) [edit] |
IN GOOD COMPANY
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, Marg Helgenberger
Directed by: Paul Weitz
Written by: Paul Weitz
Distributor: Universal Pictures (US 2004)
Rated: PG-13 for some sexual content and drug references.
As Reviewed by: Jill Cozzi
Paul Weitz' has been fortunate enough to have his new film [b]IN GOOD COMPANY[/b] launch right in the middle of a raging debate about the future of Social Security in the United States. Part of the conventional wisdom in most of these discussions is that people will simply have to work longer -- well into their sixties and in many cases, into their seventies and eighties. The problem is that in an age of multinational corporations gobbling up everything in sight, and then purging employees like a bulimic after an all-you-can-eat buffet (sorry), how are these people going to remain employed? How does a 50-year-old "dinosaur" who has done a great job for twenty-some-odd years justify his existence to the fresh-faced kid who's just become his boss after a corporate takeover? How does he manage to keep his life together when his daughter wants to transfer to NYU and his wife has just announced that oops -- maybe she hasn't hit menopause quite yet?
In Weitz' film, said 50-year-old is Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid), and said fresh-faced kid is one Carter Duryea (Topher Grace). Dan sells ad space for [i]Sports America[/i] magazine, leading a team of reps who'd take a bullet for him. It's a company that works just Well Enough, which means its ripe for a takeover by corporate raider Teddy K (Malcolm McDowell), head honcho at Globalcom. Globalcom is one of those huge megacorporations whose logo ought to be Pac-Man. It's in forty-seven businesses, completely unrelated to each other, and its management believes that Duryea can manage the Sports America ad sales group because he had great success with dinosaur-shaped cell phones for five-year-olds.
If this film were set in, oh, say, 1984 instead of 2004, Carter Duryea would be played by someone like Josh Lucas, and he'd be a sneering, arrogant master of the universe type. Dan would be played by someone like Steve Buscemi as a pathetic, over-40 zhlub. Carter would triumph, Dan would jump off a bridge, and at the end Carter would realize how empty his success is. But this film enjoys a 2004 release, so Carter is the adorable Topher Grace, and Dan is Dennis Quaid, the hottest 50-year-old guy on the face of the earth, and the villain is the megacorporation.
The Evil Corporation has become pretty reliable film villain, and for the first half-hour, until it's established that Carter is made out of different stuff than his buddy and mentor, Steckle (Clark Gregg), it shows signs of playing like a half-assed retread of Mike Judge's brilliant [i]Office Space[/i], with Grace as Lumberg and Dennis Quaid in the Ron Livingston role. But in a highly disciplined, yet seemingly effortless performance by Topher Grace, Carter is revealed layer by layer, not unlike peeling an onion. As cute as a Labrador puppy and as drolly self-effacing as Woody Allen on his best day, with an open, innocent face that makes him look like Frodo Baggins gone corporate, Topher Grace is being touted as the New Tom Hanks, yet he's something completely different. Yes, he has the boyish charm, but he plays much deeper than Hanks was at the same age, and more introspective. His Carter Duryea is painfully aware of his own limitations: "I'm actually an emotionally guarded anal-retentive asshole"
One of the lovely things about this film is that Dan's family is functional, yet not so perfect as to be unrealistic. Sure, it's impeccably decorated, with not a pillow out of place, and his age-appropriate wife is Marg Helgenberger, she of the amazing gams and scary eyebrows, and he greets the news of a late-life baby with the kind of aplomb few men could match. But Quaid looks and sounds like a real dad, albeit one who thinks nothing of picking up the telephone and saying to his younger daughter's "gentleman caller", "If you ever give my daughter an alcoholic beverage or a joint, I will hunt you down and neuter you." This family argues, but they kiss and make up, and despite the fact that sometimes these parents regard their kids as being from another planet, we see the solid grounding that makes Carter want to be a part of it.
[b]IN GOOD COMPANY[/b] is essentially a [i]pas de deux[/i] between the younger man and the older one, with Quaid giving Dan both an increasing and poignant wistfulness, and the kind cocky, snarky, grinning cunning we've seen in this actor for years. But there's some good supporting work, and not where you think you'd find it. I'm at a loss, for one thing, as to what Scarlett Johanson is doing in this film. Here the sultry aloofness that made her perfect for [i]Girl With a Pearl Earring[/i] makes her seem as if she could eat her own dad for lunch, let alone the whippersnapper who's her dad's new boss. This is a role that needs a real teenager, though with Kirsten Dunst all grown up, I'm not sure there is one -- and Lindsey Lohan just isn't it. But David Paymer brings both pathos and humor to his role as the archetypal downsized-out middle-aged sad sack who we know will never find another job, and Malcolm McDowell has fun chewing the scenery, his now elderly face made even scarier-looking by being dramatically lit by blue lights under his chin, babbling about synergy and women shopping on the internet 24 by 7 in Dubai and computer sections in sports magazines. He's in the film for about five minutes, in the kind of Capra-esque "little guy vanquishes the evil corporate/government villain" scene that works far better than it has any right to, but he creates a memorable impression.
There's nothing subtle about [b]IN GOOD COMPANY[/b], and very little that you can't see coming a mile away. The minute Scarlett Johansson, as Dan's college-age daughter, encounters Carter in the living room, after he's weaseled his way into an invitation to dinner because he's lonely, you know they'll get together. You certainly know what Dan's reaction is going to be when he finds out. You also know that before the film is over, Carter the Puppy is going to get smacked on the snout with a rolled-up newspaper. You even have an inkling that Dan is going to be OK after all and that the evil Steckle will somehow get his come-uppance. But after the end-of-year orgy of Important Dramas and Epic Bombast, this deft, lovely little film is a breath of fresh air.
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Welcome to Mixed Reviews Single Servings. Here you'll find short reviews of current and past movies for people too busy to read a full review.
You can find full-length reviews of present and past films, from Hollywood releases to independent films to "hidden treasures" that haven't been released yet, at our main site, Mixed Reviews. Please browse our archive for links to reviews of films dating back to 1998.
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