THE COMPANY MEN (2010) Moving Story of Recession Job Loss: Affleck, TL Jones, C. Cooper, Costner

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"The Company Men" Movie Review, The Hollywood Reporter, 2010. **** Venue: Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY -- "The Company Men" looks at corporate downsizing squarely in the face that is, the faces of startled men, some still relatively young but others much older whose whole self-image crumbles in a matter of moments. American movies rarely catch the American male so nakedly powerless and shattered. Writer-director John Wells, after a long career as a major force in television, brings the quiet muscle and energy of the small screen to the large one with this, his first feature as a director.
*Naturally, Wells attracts top-flight talent, so this first-timer has Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones to head his cast. That ought to help out a film that could meet considerable box office resistance. Those who have been laid off know all about this and those hanging on probably don't want to hear about it.

A distributor can expect only modest returns, although the film may show up in college courses in a decade or two when students study the calamitous recession of the early 21st century. No, its not the great Depression and this is not The Grapes of Wrath. This is about middle- and upper-class men and their families *who bought into the American dream and the greed-is-good mentality only to have a corporate rug pulled from under them.

Some react with denial such as hot-shot sales agent Bobby Walker (Affleck). He doesn't even want to cancel his golf club membership. His boss, Gene McClary (Jones), reacts with rage over these layoffs behind his back only to get sharply rebuked by longtime friend and corporate head James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson): Its not his call. *A second wave of layoffs at this large manufacturing conglomerate sweeps Phil Woodward (Cooper) overboard. He is too old to land any job better than a school-crossing guard. His experience counts for nothing. Dying his hair isn't going to help.

The ripple effect moves out to their families. Bobby's wife Maggie (Rosemary DeWitt) is the levelheaded one, but she must manage not only the family's dwindling finances but also her husband's ugly mood swings. Her brother Jack (Costner) offers Bobby a job with his construction business but that falls drastically short of Bobby's self-image.
Gene clearly sees the company he helped to build now focuses less on what it manufactures than keeping the share prices up. And he watches his old friend turn into a cowardly, self-interested owner/executive who has lost any feelings for his employees. With all the upheavals in everyone's life, Gene even leaves his wife for, of all people, the conglomerate's hit lady, Sally Wilcox (Maria Bello). Strange bedfellows...

Wells has made, for his first film, a tough movie and certainly not a commercial one. This displays the kind of guts he always brought to his television work, which one can only hope continues on in other future film projects.. - Please Read More...htttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/company-men-film-review-29125

- "The Company Men," Factory Scene.