Company Loves Misery

There's a movie we've all seen where a young man discovers that his soul-sucking corporate gig has drained him of his values, and only outdoor, manual labor can bring him balance. That movie is Office Space and there are just as many "life lessons" to be found in that film's five minute coda than in the entirety of the earnest, dry The Company Men.

The film weaves a tapestry of economic woe, with Craig T. Nelson's evil tycoon at the top and Kevin Costner's pride-of-Springsteen contractor at the bottom. Caught in between are Tommy Lee Jones, a number two at a giant corporate dinosaur, powerless to stop its heartless practices as it divests itself of traditional industry, and Ben Affleck, a youngish MBA whose career track to great wealth and security has been derailed.

Points to The Company Men for keeping the struggles of these wealthy d-bags relatable. Jones and fellow senior management good guy Chris Cooper are blessed with empathetic faces, but even Affleck's dark moment (I was kicked off the links at the club! Our dues haven't been paid!) somehow works by keeping the scenes brisk and energetic. I say it works, I don't say it makes for good moviemaking.

I swear to you I had forgotten who had written and directed The Company Men as I was viewing it, but one of the few things I scribbled (and underlined) during my screening notes was "this feels like TV."

The author of the film is John Wells, creator of E.R., which tells ya how he got this cast together. While I do consider myself a fan of quality long-form television (The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, the Wells-produced The West Wing) I do sometimes scoff at the steamrolling plot tactic so many shows employ. The Company Men follows its cast through all sorts of melodramatic tumult, but rarely stops to take a breath. I can't help but wonder if this is a ploy to distract viewers from the fact that, hell, getting kicked off the links maybe really isn't that big of a deal.

I stand by the rule that anything with Tommy Lee Jones in it can't be that bad, and that applies here. The Company Men isn't that bad, but in a world with so many good movies, there's really not much to recommend here. It is slightly telling that this picture is limping into theaters a full calendar year after its 2010 Sundance debut. Were it not for the A-list cast, I doubt this film would have a theatrical run at all.