The Company Men

 

Spoiler alert-o-meter: Mild to medium spoilers ahead.

The Company Men perfectly encapsulates a very specific American moment, the months of late 2008 and early 2009 when the economy tanked and companies went bankrupt and homebuyers realized they had shitty mortgages and the big banks made like sneak thieves with taxpayers’ dough.

The movie follows three men who work for GTX, a multi-billion dollar shipbuilding conglomerate based out of Boston, chronicling how each is affected by the economic downtown. Ben Affleck plays Bobby Walker, a smooth alpha-salesman for GTX who takes home well over a hundred grand a year. He lives in a tony suburb with his blue-collar wife and two kids, drives a Porsche, and plays golf at the club. When he gets the axe, he can barely believe it. Not having a high-paying gig does not fit in with his lifestyle.

But he’s not the only employee at GTX to get laid off. When news spreads that Bobby’s been fired, his secretary’s first question is “Did they say anything about me?”  The film outlines Bobby’s descent into denial as he continues to drive the Porsche and keep up appearances to friends, neighbors, and family. He doesn’t want to stink of loser while struggling to find work.

Meanwhile, we get to know Chris Cooper’s Phil Woodward, one of GTX’s first employees who started out working 60-hour weeks as a daredevil spot welder. Now, forty years on, he’s a wasted pencil pusher, sure that he’s next to fall. No one’s surprised when Phil finally gets his pink slip. He’s sixty and has worked at GTX all his life. But he can’t afford to retire. It’s painful to watch Phil as he goes to a job interview. His craggy face and grey hair stand out in shocking relief against a waiting room full of recent college grads competing for the same job, ready to work for half the salary.

Then there’s Tommy Lee Jones’ Gene McClary. He’s a tough talking, no bullshit vice president. The right-hand man to Craig T. Nelson’s James Salinger, GTX’s CEO. They started GTX together back in the day, and have reaped the financial benefits. Aside from Salinger, these men carry the doomed look of the already-fired or about to-be-fired. I got shudders watching these scenes of desperate men as their settled world drops out from around them.

After Bobby’s severance package runs dry, he has to sell his Porsche, and, finally, give up his huge house and move in with his parents. This may sound trite and beg the question: who cares about the rich getting screwed? But director John Wells (who worked as a writer and producer on shows like China Beach, E.R., The West Wing, and Southland) brings the swift pacing and careful characterization of riveting TV drama and makes you care for these white collar workers. We care because we know they are only the first off a sinking ship of many.

Bobby starts working for his contractor brother-in-law, Jack—effectively played by Kevin Costner, all New England-y, thickened, and a hell of a long way from Dances with Wolves. Bobby doesn’t know a thing about hammering nails, but he can learn, and he needs the money. He learns to be grateful for the small stuff, like working a physically demanding job and rediscovering the pleasure of shooting hoops with his son.

Most of the plot points The Company Men hits are laid out in the movie’s trailer like a flowchart. But, regardless of whether or not you can see how the movie ends even before you see it, just go see it. It’s a satisfying blend of corporate greed, white collar paranoia, and the simple but riveting story of how these men recover (or don’t) from the shock of unemployment.

The performances are worth the ticket price alone. Affleck doesn’t make Bobby too much of a cliché, but just enough so that, after Jack offers Bobby a job doing construction and Bobby says, “I just can’t see myself building houses,” Jack whispers to his sister, “You’re husband’s such a dick,” and you know just how he feels. Costner’s part isn’t much more than a cameo, but he acquits himself well, even with an overcooked Boston accent.

Craig T. Nelson lends gusto to Salinger, a character who adheres to the bottom line while overlooking the human cost of layoffs. Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper all do a great job bringing out the frustration, difficulty, and in some cases resignation as old men in a new world where changes to America’s manufacturing infrastructure are quantified in layoffs and site closures. 

The movie ends on a hopeful note, but it’s impossible to forget that what came before was an all-too-real situation for many Americans, white or blue collar. In some ways The Company Men is the flipside to last year’s incendiary documentary Inside Job, which painstakingly mapped how the bottom dropped out of the American financial sector. Although slated for release last year (it still carries the 2010 copyright) this movie should be remembered next year at this time when the Oscars for 2011 movies are announced.



Stats:

Theater location: Woburn Showcase, Sunday, January 23rd, 2:25 matinee. Price $7.50. Viewed with Liz. Snacks--Peanut Butter Builder's Bar.

Coming Attractions:

The Adjustment Bureau. Matt Damon stumbles upon an concurrent reality where exists the adjustment bureau, a league of fedora-wearing men who control to the flow of daily events. But Matt met a woman he shouldn't have, and now he and Emily Blunt are running for their lives. Or something like that. Inception lite.

The Town

Week 1. The Town, directed by Ben Affleck, is smart. We know this because the hardened bank robbers who make short work of those banks and armored cars in Cambridge, the North End, and other Boston-area locations pay attention to detail. In the opening bank robbery, the cell phones of everyone in the bank are collected, dumped into a candy bowl, and covered with water. It’s that kind of detail that needs paying attention to, because today’s movie audience for a bank robbery, a hatchet murder, a quirky romance, high tech corporate espionage, or a comic book adaptation knows all the answers already. So a good director won’t give the audience a reason to ask questions, or time to think of them.

The Town is isn’t quite short, shrewd, or fast enough not to give the audience time or reason to ask, but it’s a sturdy, enjoyable ride, and refreshing in the way that The Friends of Eddie Coyle was probably a blast of something new almost forty years ago. The Town is nothing new, but you don’t always recognize the used parts, and that’s good.

Ben Affleck plays Doug, a recovering alcoholic, working stiff from Charlestown, MA., and bank robber. It’s in his blood. His father (gravitas: supplied by Chris Cooper) is doing some time up in a New Hampshire prison for robbing banks, but before he went away he passed his knowledge to Doug.

Doug seems like a good guy. He’s relatively smart, or at least knows smart when he sees it. He’s shagging the town pump and family friend, Krista, played by TV actress Blake Lively (in a performance that made me forget I’ve seen her someplace before—and announces a new Ellen Barkin for 2010). On Doug’s team is Krista’s brother, Jim, effectively played by Jeremy Renner. Jim’s quick with a gun and would rather not leave witnesses, but what are you gonna do? Shoot everyone? Rounding out the team are two other guys, one an electronics expert who learned his stuff working for local phone company Vericom. Replace com with zon and you’ve Massachusetts phone company Verizon.

During the robbery that opens the movie, the gang takes a hostage and gets away with the loot. The hostage is a beautiful bank teller, Claire, played by the lovely Rebecca Hall who brings an understated naturalness to the role. After the gang lets her go (she’s blind folded the whole time), Jim insists on cleaning up this loose end, thinking she'll somehow give away their identities. Doug tails her, makes contact, and falls for her. Meanwhile, the Boston branch of the FBI, manifested by Jon Hamm (sans any Boston accent -- and that’s a good thing) uses Claire to finally get close enough to try to take the gang down.

Doug wants different life away from the streets of The Town. He'll take down one last score (or two, but who’s counting?) and leave town with Claire. I never forget I’m watching Ben Affleck, but that’s okay because he’s fun to watch, inherently likeable. But as director and star, Affleck gives all the showy moments to Jeremy Renner, who really plays a menacing character well. Renner does what he can, saddled with a character who “can’t go back to prison” after doing nine years for killing a man (for the sake of Doug—thanks for nothing).

There’s an armored car robbery and subsequent high speed chase through the streets of the North End that is impressive, and the final shootout/showdown underneath and outside of Fenway Park is pretty breathless. But the action scenes were shot as if from across the street, where Affleck’s direction must have been “Zoom in. No zoom out.” Lots of movement but no real pace or logic. Which seems to be the way chase/action scenes have been shot for the past 10-15 years.

William Friedkin shot one of the best chase scenes for The French Connection, where the camera was put in the front seat of the car, and out on the street and sidewalk—where you’re either driving or about to get hit. Then George Miller amped it up in Mad Max, put the camera down by the bumper and drove cars as fast as they could, so now you’re a neighboring car angling for supremacy, or you’re a poor slob wrapped around a bumper. For today’s movies it seems like the cameras get a lot of coverage (or, maybe not enough) and these action scenes are literally created in post-production, with the result generally an unintelligible mess. Film is a language--learn it.

Pete Postlethwaite shows up as the gang’s boss, the guy who Doug’s father worked for back in the day. Pete is an actor who just needs to show up for things to get real. He’s got a great face, and he’s always pissed off. And you do not want Pete Postlethwaite mad at you.

Doug (ben’s character) possesses, if not the smarts, at least the knowledge about robbing banks. But the jobs these guys pull off are so slick and professional, I just don’t buy that these four neighborhood guys could pull it together to make these heists. Do these kinds of sophisticated, coordinated jobs really go down in Boston? Anywhere? Charlestown, MA. apparently breeds more bank robbers than anyplace else in the country, yet most of the robberies on the local news involve extremely dimwitted young men who can barely find the exit when they’re done playing stick-up.

It would have been nice if the Doug character showed more intellect, more—hell I’ll say it—more Good Will Hunting savantness for me to believe he’s the ringleader and the brains behind this operation. Even if Pete Postlethwaite’s pulling the strings, somebody has to execute the plan, and I just don’t see these guys doing it.

Oddly distracting for me were the exterior scenes shot in Boston. Especially in the beginning when the gang rob a bank in Harvard Square. I couldn’t help but try to recognize the locations. That’s part of the fun of living near Boston where many movies have been shot in the past decade thanks to tax breaks. And the location shooting adds a layer of authenticity that a movie like this needs. Adding to the local connection, the movie is an adaptation of local author Chuck Hogan's book Prince of Thieves. 

If you miss the crime dramas of the ‘70s, then I recommend The Town.

Stats:

Theater location: Lowell Showcase. Saturday afternoon matinee. Price: 8.50. Viewed solo.

Coming Attractions:

The Company Men. Another Ben Affleck movie with Chris Cooper, along with Maria Bello, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kevin Costner. More Boston locations. About white collar workers who lose their jobs and learn some wit and wisdom from blue collar nimrod Costner. Looks pretty good, although, like many trailers, appears to show the entire arc of the story.

The Fighter. Shot in Lowell, so of course I’ll be seeing this one. About Mickey Ward, the boxer from our mean streets. Story seems very conventional, following the sports underdog template: athlete has potential, has personal problems, loses his first shot, overcomes adversity, gets a second shot. On the plus side it's directed by David O. Russell.

Next Katherine Heigel flop. This movie releases this Friday I think, yet I’ve seen previews for it so many times I feel like it’s already hit theaters, tanked, and is now getting a quick-turnaround DVD-release.

Cat Fish. I hadn’t been interested in this documentary until I saw the trailer. Now I’m intrigued.