Movie Review: The Company Men
The Company Men is a painfully good movie, and if that sentence seems odd to you, let me start out by saying that I mean it as a compliment. I'll happily explain, but first, let's get some plot description out of the way.
As the movie opens, Robert "Bobby" Walker, Jr. (Ben Affleck) arrives at work. He's a junior executive at GTX (which, in a nice touch, is a purposefully misspelled abbreviation for "General Transportation Services"), and the first scene establishes that Bobby Walker is confident, friendly, happy, talkative, and simply loves his job. He's vaguely aware that a recent merger has led upper management to label certain jobs at the company as "redundant," but Bobby's a top earner, and considered by some to be "the best salesman on the east coast," so it's a complete shock to him (but not to the viewers, who immediately guess from the awkward glances he gets from his co-workers) when Bobby, like dozens of others, is suddenly and unceremoniously laid off.
Bobby's confidence doesn't disappear right away; on his first day of unemployment, he strolls into an employment agency and arrogantly announces that he'll be back at work -- presumably in an equally prestigious and high-paying position -- in four days. As days stretch into weeks, and then into months, we see that confidence slowly melt away. A little too slowly, actually; Bobby goes into denial, and consistently refuses to make any cuts in his extravagant lifestyle expenses. Country club dues, Porsche payments, expensive birthday gifts -- Bobby refuses to cut back on anything, because, he keeps explaining to his wiser wife, he will find another job again soon. Very soon.
Meanwhile, the only member of upper management at GTX that protests the firing of Bobby and others is Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran of the company and best friend to C.E.O. James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson). His reasons for protesting increase as the movie unfolds: On a personal level, Gene trained Bobby himself, thinks he's a good kid, and had personally promised him that his job would not be in jeopardy. On a rational level, Gene points out a glaring inconsistency, that just as GTX is firing loyal employees because the company allegedly can no longer afford to pay them, Jim Salinger buys a new building for the sole purpose of devoting the top floor to luxurious executive office suites. On an ethical level, Gene notes that the "random" lay-offs almost exclusively target older employes, "with just enough under thirties to avoid being sued." Assured that GTX hasn't technically broken any laws, Gene replies, "I thought we had a higher standard than that."
Gene is, of course, wrong, and also naive for saying so. As viewers, we see how much his constant protests annoy his boss and "friend," and so when Salinger finally fires Gene and his buddy, fellow veteran Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), it's again a shock to the men being fired, but not to the film's viewers. Gene and Phil point out that they've been with the company since its infancy, even since its inception, but this matters little to Salinger, who is all business and has no interest in unprofitable concepts like fairness or loyalty.
Woodward's attempts to find another job are hampered by his age; he dies his hair in a futile attempt to look younger, cringes when aspects of his resume are referred to as "ancient," and despairs when he walks into a waiting room where dozens of other applicants wait -- and they're all decades younger than he is. We feel for poor, old Woodward.
But Bobby is the real emotional center of the film, and I think it's fair to guess that anyone who's ever lost a job, or otherwise struggled with unemployment, can sympathize with the character. The many indignities of unemployment -- the constant rejection from job searches, the discovery that a hard-earned degree is increasingly worthless in today's job market, the gradual strain on finances with no source of income, and the mostly unspoken social stigma of being jobless, are all shown with disturbing honesty. The movie is also ruthlessly frank about the fact that a man will eventually take any job when desperate enough; over the course of a year, Bobby's priorities and grasp of reality change him drastically, and he goes from rejecting high-paying white-collar job opportunites because of imagined, minor insults, to asking his hated brother-in-law (Kevin Costner) for a brutally exhausting manual labor job.
Let me tell you, The Company Men has a lot to offer. The dialogue is compelling yet natural, the "everyman" performances are convincing enough to overcome the cast's considerable star power, and the storyline is admirably credible. Of course, if you've ever been unemployed, this movie will no doubt awaken very painful memories, so in that sense, I almost hesitate to recommend this. But damn this is one good movie.
As the movie opens, Robert "Bobby" Walker, Jr. (Ben Affleck) arrives at work. He's a junior executive at GTX (which, in a nice touch, is a purposefully misspelled abbreviation for "General Transportation Services"), and the first scene establishes that Bobby Walker is confident, friendly, happy, talkative, and simply loves his job. He's vaguely aware that a recent merger has led upper management to label certain jobs at the company as "redundant," but Bobby's a top earner, and considered by some to be "the best salesman on the east coast," so it's a complete shock to him (but not to the viewers, who immediately guess from the awkward glances he gets from his co-workers) when Bobby, like dozens of others, is suddenly and unceremoniously laid off.
Bobby's confidence doesn't disappear right away; on his first day of unemployment, he strolls into an employment agency and arrogantly announces that he'll be back at work -- presumably in an equally prestigious and high-paying position -- in four days. As days stretch into weeks, and then into months, we see that confidence slowly melt away. A little too slowly, actually; Bobby goes into denial, and consistently refuses to make any cuts in his extravagant lifestyle expenses. Country club dues, Porsche payments, expensive birthday gifts -- Bobby refuses to cut back on anything, because, he keeps explaining to his wiser wife, he will find another job again soon. Very soon.
Meanwhile, the only member of upper management at GTX that protests the firing of Bobby and others is Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran of the company and best friend to C.E.O. James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson). His reasons for protesting increase as the movie unfolds: On a personal level, Gene trained Bobby himself, thinks he's a good kid, and had personally promised him that his job would not be in jeopardy. On a rational level, Gene points out a glaring inconsistency, that just as GTX is firing loyal employees because the company allegedly can no longer afford to pay them, Jim Salinger buys a new building for the sole purpose of devoting the top floor to luxurious executive office suites. On an ethical level, Gene notes that the "random" lay-offs almost exclusively target older employes, "with just enough under thirties to avoid being sued." Assured that GTX hasn't technically broken any laws, Gene replies, "I thought we had a higher standard than that."
Gene is, of course, wrong, and also naive for saying so. As viewers, we see how much his constant protests annoy his boss and "friend," and so when Salinger finally fires Gene and his buddy, fellow veteran Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), it's again a shock to the men being fired, but not to the film's viewers. Gene and Phil point out that they've been with the company since its infancy, even since its inception, but this matters little to Salinger, who is all business and has no interest in unprofitable concepts like fairness or loyalty.
Woodward's attempts to find another job are hampered by his age; he dies his hair in a futile attempt to look younger, cringes when aspects of his resume are referred to as "ancient," and despairs when he walks into a waiting room where dozens of other applicants wait -- and they're all decades younger than he is. We feel for poor, old Woodward.
But Bobby is the real emotional center of the film, and I think it's fair to guess that anyone who's ever lost a job, or otherwise struggled with unemployment, can sympathize with the character. The many indignities of unemployment -- the constant rejection from job searches, the discovery that a hard-earned degree is increasingly worthless in today's job market, the gradual strain on finances with no source of income, and the mostly unspoken social stigma of being jobless, are all shown with disturbing honesty. The movie is also ruthlessly frank about the fact that a man will eventually take any job when desperate enough; over the course of a year, Bobby's priorities and grasp of reality change him drastically, and he goes from rejecting high-paying white-collar job opportunites because of imagined, minor insults, to asking his hated brother-in-law (Kevin Costner) for a brutally exhausting manual labor job.
Let me tell you, The Company Men has a lot to offer. The dialogue is compelling yet natural, the "everyman" performances are convincing enough to overcome the cast's considerable star power, and the storyline is admirably credible. Of course, if you've ever been unemployed, this movie will no doubt awaken very painful memories, so in that sense, I almost hesitate to recommend this. But damn this is one good movie.
posted by Movie Man at
2:45 AM
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