The Company Men Review: Cleverly Impressive

In the new film The Company Men, Boston-based Global Transportation Systems (GTX) is a company in crisis. Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is their Northeast Regional Sales Manager who, after twelve years, has become accustomed to his $120K salary and golf club membership. His wife and children are quite comfortable as well, as most anyone would be in their situation. In fact, it’s easy to see how nothing in the world could have prepared Bobby Walker to walk into the office one morning (after shooting an 86 at the club), only to be met with talk of division consolidation, redundancies, and severance packages. Cue the line uttered by every terminated employee in every film since the advent of the medium as a shocked Bobby asks, “You’re firing me?”

The Company Men, the first feature film written and directed by John Wells, is the story of the recent economic downturn as filtered through the tales of a few working heads-of-households. Joining Affleck’s Bobby is Tommy Lee Jones as Gene McClary, the former business equal of GTX’s now CEO J. Salinger (portrayed with a quiet and elegant restraint by Craig T. Nelson.) From early on, we get the feeling that Gene is not a huge fan of the drastic downsizing of the company he helped build from the ground up. His division is being shut down completely, but he’s just as concerned about the lives affected by the mass layoffs at GTX. At one point, he suggests (with just a hint of irony) to Salinger that he sell the expensive paintings in his office to help cut losses. While it’s an obvious, comically unfit solution to the company’s woes, Jones’ delivery of the line makes it a profound illustration of capitalist excess. An excess which has spread to his own life, Gene realizes when his wife asks for the company jet to take a friend away to Palm Beach for a weekend of shopping and golf. Gene can only stare at her incredulously, probably wondering how he got himself to this point. Here is the bloated-fatcat-turned-bleeding-heart that we huddled masses dream about; and though I wonder if this creature actually exists in nature the character works in this case thanks to Jones’ strong and invested performance. It is his determined and constructive optimism that drives the narrative forward.

The Company Men also features Kevin Costner and despite his contrived Boston accent, I never once wanted to look away from the screen. Costner plays Jack, Bobby’s brother-in-law and owner of a construction outfit which reaches out to Bobby in its time of dire need. As far as we can tell, Jack has been playfully ribbing Bobby about the unethical practices of multinational corporations and the absurdity of grossly overpaid upper management since they met. It’s nice to see the tables turn when the problem of job instability is introduced. I’d have liked to see a bit more nuance added to Jack’s character, as well as the exploration of  the relationship between these two men a bit more fully. Their unavoidable, unexpected partnership could have been the beating heart of the film. Instead, it’s almost an afterthought, overshadowed by more compelling story elements brought to life by more capable actors.

An impressive original score by Aaron Zigman adds to the appeal of this movie, as does the beautiful work on the part of Director of Photography Roger Deakins.

The single greatest thing for which to thank The Company Men is the privilege of watching Chris Cooper portray Phil Woodward, an aging Vietnam veteran desperate to act as a human shield for his wife and daughter, feebly defending them against his own personal shortcomings and longings. His long career at GTX has left him with few choices but to remain there forever, which suddenly may not be an option anymore. It’s an unthinkable fate for a man of his circumstances. You can guess most of what happens to Woodward, but witnessing Cooper embody this battered, vulnerable ticking time bomb is a bittersweet yet worthwhile experience. Cooper, a relentlessly astonishing force in American cinema, deserves any and all accolades coming to him for his role.

When we emerge and gaze back at the great economic recession of our generation, we’ll look to artifacts like these to remind us to reflect on the intersection between blind ambition and human need. These archetypal corporate men and their ilk undoubtedly lost sight of what was most vital in their lives; indeed, they may have taken a load off and reclined too readily after a long day’s work on the top floor. Many of us resent them for it, and perhaps rightly so. However, this film begs us to focus in more closely, to examine the crippling, corrupting effect that decades of unjustifiable indulgences would have on even the strongest among us. I, for one, am impressed at how cleverly and sneakily it has succeeded in its mission by the time the credits begin to roll.

See The Company Men.