David O'ConnellThe Company Men
February 25th 2011 02:43
As a sombre reflection of the financial downturn that has crippled world economies and inexorably closed down the shutters on businesses large and small, debuting director John Wells's The Company Men is judiciously timed at least. When a ruthless CEO (Craig T. Nelson) decides that his army of ant workers needs to be trimmed like a series of loose follicles, even his best friend and the man who helped originate the business, Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), isn’t exempt from experiencing the pain of a blade being lodged in his back.
In the wake of the ultimate betrayal, which Gene feels more in the context of the younger men around him who’ve been made to fall on their swords, he’s gifted with a fresh perspective and a rush of insight. Hollowness suddenly resounds in the sight of his palatial mansion and coiffured wife who routinely asks if they can borrow a company jet for a frivolous weekend away. He retracts from these hollow comforts as if the decades were nothing but elaborate dreams he invested with hope for a stranger with the same name. With no other viable options he falls into the arms of his young mistress Sally Wilcox (Maria Bello) - ironically the person charged with doing the boss’s dirty work in relieving the minions of their posts.
As a veteran whose wisdom counts for little against the implacability of change for survival’s sake, he’s part of a core of older men for whom the notion of restarting life in their 50’s is as unfathomable as it is distasteful. In a similar boat is another morose, 30 year company man shown the door, Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), whose life slowly spirals into the contemplation of dark, suffocating places in which alcohol is wound-tending, friends are enemies and exit routes scarce.
This is also the story of Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) an upwardly mobile salary man who has long toiled for the company. Devastated and embarrassed, he’s thrown to the wolves of the unemployment line and asked to reconstitute his life. But he won’t consider anything less than the wage he’s become accustomed to; this belligerent stand becomes foolish as the redundancy payments run out and his options shrink, his marriage the first thing to take a battering.
It’s a humbling experience for Bobby, who eventually must swallow a expanding pellet of pride to make ends meet. Does this mean lowering himself to menial labour with his drywalling brother-in-law Jack (Kevin Costner), a hardy family man whose salt-of-the-earth qualities provide an example for us all?
The Company Men (2011) makes for very solid, if unspectacular drama; though it never reaches great heights as drama, it still offers value as a meaningful portrait of humanity trying to prevent a groundswell of indignation spilling over into drastic reactionary behaviour against the global downsizing that places individuals, their dignity, and their families in jeopardy.
Jones, in particular, as a representative of those scarce dissenting voices who believe in weighing up morality against the bigger picture, provides the heart and soul of the film even as Bobby’s quest for humility in compromise assumes a larger chunk of our attention. Cooper is typically good at evoking the futility of hurling impotent rage against an unfeeling machine, whilst Costner is surprisingly convincing at slipping into the shoes of an everyman labourer who savours life for the small pleasures it offers.
The Company Men is released by Madman Entertainment in select Australian cinemas on Thursday, March 10.
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