John Wells is not my favorite writer. Best known as the producer of ER and The West Wing I always kind of dreaded the episodes he wrote. He seemed to be trying too hard to be relevant, and the things he had to say where never as profound as I think they were intended to be. That being said I did like The Company Men, despite its limitations.
This is the story of overpaid business types, mostly mid-management, and what happens when they cease to be overpaid business types. Its a commentary on our current economic climate, businesses that are desperate, more then anything, to keep there stock prices up, its holders happy, and pretend its still the 1990's. To do that one of the things they do is try to keep costs down so their profits seem to go up, or something to that effect. So they lay people off, and in this economy those they lay off have a hell of a time finding new work, especially work that would pay there overinflated MBA salary's. We see this through the experience of several family's, notable the Ben Afflick's, who in the end are forced to sell there beautiful home, take jobs bellow there station, and move in with his parents.
The solution here is an idealistic one, with former corporate executive Tommy Lee Jones starting a new company so as to re-employ some of the people laid off from his old one. Its not a realistic solution really, so it deflates a bit from the rest of the movie, which is cable TV good. Also there's something just really sexy about Rosemary DeWitt.
Grade: B
When I was in a major car accident last year and ended up in the hospital for a multi-week stay, it was sometime after waking up from my coma before I saw my face in a mirror, when I did and beheld my shaved head (shaved so as to make it easyer to perform brain surgery) my first thought was 'I look like Ben Foster in The Messenger'.
The Messenger had only very recently come out at that time and I didn't see any theatrical movie again until late summer, so its just now that I got around to seeing it on DVD. This is a very impressive work, with not a false note from the leads. Ben Foster is a decorated and injured Iraq War vet who is assigned to spend the last three months of his enlistment in a casualty notification unit. This is a God awful job where you go to inform the next of kin of fallen solders. Emotionally this is rather rough on all involved.
Ben develops a fascination with a certain young widow, he violates protocol to help her with things like car repair and though its never consummated, there is a mutual attraction there. This to some degree has to do with Foster's break-up with long time girlfriend Jenna Malone, who while he was away hooked up with another guy and got engaged. But the primary relationship is between Ben and his recovering alcoholic superior officer Woody Harrelson. The two must notify a lot of grieving relations in there assignment and as a result grow an interesting bond.
This is a very good movie, solid, engaging, and something new. Impressive.
Grade: A
The Answer Man stars Jeff Daniels as the reclusive author of mega selling book called Me & God. Described as a book that shaped the spirituality of a generation, and spawned many lose imitators such as The Me & God Diet, and Me & God for Atheists. Twenty years after its initial publication Daniels has become a hermit in his Philadelphia town house, he doesn't have any friends and doesn't want any. What he dose want is to get read of a great excess of books that he's built up, and in a somewhat convoluted plot device he trades them to the owner of a small book store (who can't afford to buy them, but Daniels wants to get ride of them so much he'd give them away for free) in exchange for the recovering alcoholic owner asking him one question per five books.
Daniels is capable of offering some quasi-profound advise, but he doesn't really want to, he just wants to hold up bitterly still blaming God for the death of his beloved father from Alzheimer's. Daniels has also got a really bad back, and while seeking care for it he meets a beautiful chiropractor played by Lauren Graham (not a great actress, but very capable in her limited range). Daniels pursues a relationship with Graham, who of course has a cute young son from her first marriage (the father decided he didn't want to be a father anymore and just left three years ago). So of course Graham & son bring Daniels out of his shell and force him to re-engage with the world, and I guess forgive God.
This feels like an unusually good Family Channel movie, though it boasts a surprising number of F-bombs. Cute but far from great, it still makes for a pleasant diversion.
Grade: B-
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I was impressed by The Company Men. I had been looking forward to it from previews and perhaps read more into it than you did. I viewed it more as a story about balancing things like cost cutting (through lay-offs) with the considerations of who people are and what they have done for you. I also caught a bit of being grateful for what you have and doing what it takes to make it.
I wasn't disappointed and enjoyed the flick. I agree that this could end up being a LONG running cable flick. In the end I would have given it a B+ or A-.
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