The Company Men

Review of the moview by Hans Sherrer

Some movies capture an aspect of a period of time so convincingly that if placed in a time-capsule that was unsealed several generations later it would have relevance for the viewers of that future time.

A time-capsule movie made in 1946 is The Best Years of Our Lives, which portrays the adjustment servicemen had returning to civilian life after WWII. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, it hasn’t lost its relevance seven decades after it was made because it focuses on the human element of the men who returned from years in the military to their former unglamorous lives and having to cope with the emotional and/or physical scars etched on them from their wartime experiences.

The story revolves around how a large shipbuilding/transportation company known as GTX that is headquartered in Boston, deals with reduced revenues and lower profit margins as a result of the severe economic downturn in the U.S. that accelerated in 2008. The company lays off thousands of rank and file workers, and it also issues pink slips to many executives along with a week of severance pay for each year of working for the company.

One of those executives is 36-year-old Bobby Walker, played by Ben Affleck. When Bobby was laid-off he was a hot-shot sales manager making $120,000 a year plus bonuses. He was living the good life -- driving a Porsche, the member of a country club, and living in a large house worth seven figures in a fashionable neighborhood with his wife and two children.

Believing he is so talented that he’ll only be unemployed for a matter of days or a few weeks at most -- but long before his 12 weeks of severance is spent -- Bobby is in denial about his situation and brushes off his wife’s concerns that they need to cut back their spending. Unable to find a comparable job, creditors impose the reality he won’t face on his own, as he must sell his car, give up golf, sell his house at a loss, move his family in with his parents to live in two spare rooms.

Kevin Costner plays Bobby's brother-in-law Jack Dolan. Jack and his sister Maggie, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, are two of the most interesting people in the movie because they don’t have any illusions about what is happening in their lives. Jack is a down-to-earth small businessman who offers Bobby a job after learning he is having trouble finding a job comparable to his old job at GTX. After Bobby breaks down and agrees to work with Jack as a laborer on a house remodel, Bobby finds an extra $200 in his first pay envelope. When Bobby tells Jack about the extra money his response is to tell Bobby that sometimes he is not good at math -- but he knows his sister’s family needs the money and it is his way to help her without making it look like charity.

The closest the movie comes to light moments is showing Bobby’s difficulty adjusting to working with his hands on the house remodel. In one scene Bobby struggles for some time to put up lattice for a plaster wall. When Jack thinks he is frustrated enough to being open to learning, in 15 seconds he shows Bobby how to use a speed-square to do it fast and right. In time Bobby comprehends there is a high-degree of skill and craftsmanship involved in doing physical tasks quickly and right the first-time. In another scene Bobby struggles to carry a piece of plywood upstairs, and after he plops it down Jack tells him -- "Next time carry two pieces" -- conveying to Bobby that he is on a construction job that has its own pace and demands. Exhausted and with blisters, Bobby gains an appreciation for working hard and not sitting behind a desk selling something on the telephone.

Craig T. Nelson plays the founder and CEO of GTX and he takes the heat for authorizing the layoffs intended to reduce expenses and keep the company’s stock price high enough that another company won’t think it is undervalued and initiate a hostile take-over -- and to keep the stockholders and board of directors from wanting to oust him from running the company.

Some of the movies dramatic tension comes when Nelson fires the number two man in the company and his oldest friend Gene McClary, played by Tommy Lee Jones. McClary was fired because he had the audacity to challenge Nelson’s tactics to prop-up the stock price for the short-term at the cost of gutting the company of the talented people necessary to ensure its long-term prosperity.

Surprisingly, given its serious topic and the inability of one character Phil Woodword -- a middle-aged executive played by Chris Cooper -- to cope with the sudden loss of his job by which he defined himself, The Company Men is not downbeat.

The movie has an ending that reflects the positive approach to life that resulted in the main characters becoming successful in the first place. They didn’t "wish" or "hope" their way to success -- they did it the old-fashioned way through hard work. Is their future success guaranteed? No, but if not it won’t be because of their lack of effort.

The Company Men is not for everyone, but it is not to be missed if you are an admirer of Kevin Costner, Craig T. Nelson, or Tommy Lee Jones’ acting. The movie doesn’t sound a false note, and this reviewer believes it will stand the test of time.

The Company Men
Released to theaters January 2011.
Available on DVD June 2011.
Directed By John Wells
Ben Affleck as Bobby Walker
Tommy Lee Jones as Gene McClary
Maria Bello as Sally Wilcox
Kevin Costner as Jack Dolan
Chris Cooper as Phil Woodward
Rosemarie DeWitt as Maggie Walker

The Company Men official website that has a trailer

InternetMovieDatabase.com webpage for The Company Men 

Rottentomatoes.com webpage for The Company Men