Ben Affleck plays a cocky, smirky marketing manager for major corporation. One day, he shows up at work after playing a terrific round of golf and finds out he’s been laid off. Over 6,000 other employees of the corporation have been laid off, too. Affleck drives his Porsche home to his million dollar house to tell his wife he’s lost his job. Initially, Affleck remains optimistic. He thinks he’ll just rebound and find a similar job. But that doesn’t happen. Affleck’s severance checks run out, his home is foreclosed, and his Porsche is repossessed. Affleck, his wife, teenage son, and young daughter move into Affleck’s parent’s house. Affleck swallows his pride and asks his brother-in-law, a building contractor, for a job. The scenes of Affleck putting up drywall and making cement are ironic and sad at the same time. Once a six-figure earning executive, Affleck learns what hard labor is all about. Tommy Lee Jones plays a maverick VP, Chris Cooper plays a 60-ish executive trying to hold on to his job in order to pay his daughter’s tuition at Brown University. Kevin Costner is convincing as Affleck’s acerbic brother-in-law. This talented cast present a portrait of the American workplace that is all too real. GRADE: B+
One I want to see if it doesn’t disappear before I get to it. Anything with Chris Cooper is on my list. And the rest of the cast isn’t too shabby either.
You’ll appreciate the fine performances in THE COMPANY MEN, Patti. The demonstrations in Madison, Wisconsin are a direct result of what happened in this movie.
We’re going to see this on Monday, as it just started playing down here.
You and Jackie will enjoy THE COMPANY MEN, Jeff. After you see it, I’ll share my thoughts on how it could have been better.
This one certainly does sound good. I was aware it existed, but not in the detail you give. Thanks!
I found parts of THE COMPANY MEN very moving, Rick. Watching the laid off workers carrying their boxes of “stuff” to their cars while the executives talked about their millions in stock options certainly struck a chord.
I saw the trailer for this movie last week. The problem I have with what I saw can be summed up in the question I whispered to my husband as we watched the preview, “What–do only men get laid-off?”
Having been laid-off last year (and having been fortunate enough to find another job), I don’t think so!
There are also women laid off, Deb. And Affleck’s plucky wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) does a great job supporting the family until Affleck’s character wakes up to the reality of his situation. Maria Bello plays the Human Resources hatch-woman, Sally Wilcox, who fires everybody.
My husband was laid-off once by a letter that was Fed-Ex’d to our house. It happened to be the weekend after his birthday and we thought it might be a late card/gift from someone.
I’m sure all of us have layoff stories like that.
THE COMPANY MEN show how terribly the layoffs affected the workers, Deb. Ben Affleck’s character pretends he still has a job.
I note the slip Bello into the image without name-checking her. A friend was bemoaning that she’s been tapped to play Tennyson in a US remake of PRIME SUSPECT…we shall see.
Bello delivers a solid performance in THE COMPANY MEN (even if she fires them all), Todd. I wish they’d given her more to do.
They slip. I mistype.
Kevin Costner spoke the truest line when he tells his sister, “Your husband’s a real dick.” But once he comes to terms with it (the 5 stages of grief are pretty clear here) he does become a much better person. Jackie thought maybe his wife was not happy with their previous lifestyle (though they didn’t deal with that at all, it was her take) because of how much more realistic she was from the beginning. She also read it (SPOILER ALERT) that Jones got back with his wife at the end, but I didn’t see that. (END SPOILER)
And (SPOILER AGAIN) she felt Cooper took the coward’s way out. (END SPOILER)
Overall, good movie even if kind of depressing, despite the upbeat ending.
I found THE COMPANY MEN very realistic, Jeff. Chris Cooper’s character is all too familiar (and his action happens every day, sadly). Jackie is very perceptive about Affleck’s wife. When Ben apologizes for not finding a job instantly, his wife responses with: “When you were working, you were never around.” I also liked that Affleck’s wife tried to initiate sex (although she wasn’t always successful).
I agree. A lot of these high-level guys just can’t deal with it. Their job definies them to such an extent that suicide might seem a better alternative than going on without everything they’ve had before.
I suspect the pressures of the job over all those years takes its toll, Jeff.