We finally got The Company Men in theaters around here. When the film opened nationally on January 21 of this year, Buffalo was not on the “selected” cities list. What defined “select” markets anyway? Was it metros where the themes of corporate downsizing, job loss, foreclosure, and discovering there’s more to life than a paycheck would really matter? I was traveling home from Phoenix—a selected market—opening day, and I so wanted to do something I consider wasteful when on vacation: go to the movies.
While The Company Men is mainstream now, only a few Buffalo theaters are showing it. Check Fandango or your favorite listing service for venues and show times. That said, a Valentine’s afternoon matinee at Regal Quaker Crossing was the perfect gift to myself. With a cast plucked from the likes of Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, and Tommy Lee Jones, anything is bound to be a good movie, and this company of men does deliver.
While last year’s Up in the Air focused on more middle-class Americans ("Main Street" as the press calls them, ad naseum) facing job losses and tough times, Company Men applies this same formula, only to executives. More is at stake here: million-dollar plus homes, country club memberships, fine European sports cars...
The main character of the film, Bobby Walker, is played by Ben Affleck. A wealthy, under-40 executive, Walker seems to have it all: an attractive wife (played by Rosemarie DeWitt), a lavish suburban-Boston cape, a beautiful family, a Porsche, and a six-figure sales job with a ship-building conglomerate. As the 2008 recession takes hold, producer John Wells felt it was relevant to include clips of actual news reports—Bear Stearns' failure, the Bush Administration's TARP, the run on Indy Mac Bank. These clips, delivered by the networks' talking heads, are all too fresh in many minds.
Along with several other high-level execs from this Beantown shipbuilder, Company Men details the coping methods Walker and his colleagues employ as they seek to come to grip with the loss, rejection, and agony of a layoff. Do they keep the house? The car? How to make use of severance-provided outplacement services? Is it time to take an entry-level job? While sounding a bit forced at times, their New-England grit and no-BS ways provide for many a memorable one-liner.
Surprisingly, at the start of the film Affleck is the spoiled executive who’s got a lot to learn along with a good dose of humility. His skinny-jean rockin’ wife, meanwhile, proves to be the level-head of the family, balancing the budget and forcing her husband to make the tough choices.
How each man plays the hand he’s dealt ultimately seals his fate as his next career chapter unfolds. Along the way each discovers what's really important in life—family, hard work, and sacrifice. The storyline is straightforward, but superb acting by Affleck and the cast is what really makes this film enjoyable. Assuming you’re into drama, especially that which deals with very current events, then you should definitely take the time to find one of the theaters in our area that is currently showing The Company Men.
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