Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This is one of the last films scheduled to come out this year, set for a December 29th release. I’m looking forward to it, and the reactions we’ve run so far have been pretty strong overall. This is the first I’ve heard of a title change, though. Maybe they’re testing it under this title to see if there’s any difference in people’s reactions. Let’s check it out:
To all the folks at Ain’t-It-Cool,
My last review I submitted for “Inside Deep Throat” got quite a reaction. Well, here’s something completely different:
There are so few movies out in the theaters nowadays that make you think, feel, laugh, and cry in one sitting. Tonight, at the hotbed of preview screenings – Sherman Oaks Galleria, I saw “In Good Company,” the new film by the Weitz brothers and, if I can’t exactly express how, I’ll try to express why this movie affected me…
Just the other night (at the same theater), I saw “Spanglish.” You posted a review of that and, for the most part, I agreed with it. It was a really enjoyable film that worked because it had complex relationships and characters. The reason I bring that movie up is because that sort of complexity is expected from James L. Brooks. It’s the sort of complexity that I also expect from Cameron Crowe. And it is the kind of complexity that I saw in tonight’s film. Chris and Paul Weitz may come to regret that they made "American Pie” because that denigrates the true talent they have now proven to possess. On one episode of “Dinner For Five,” Jason Biggs also expressed this sentiment that, despite working on Broadway and working with Woody Allen, he’ll always be known as the “pie-fucker.” But I digress, back to the Brothers Weitz. Their next film, “About A Boy,” showed their ability to bring layers to a character and to create a mood that could really connect with audiences. This mood made what could have been a story about a manipulative and selfish bastard into a complex story about a man trying to figure out who he is. And this film carries on the complexity, sincerity, levity, and heart of that film, without ever really giving the audience a predictable resolution.
I don’t want to bog this review down in so much “heart” that it doesn’t express how truly funny and alive the screenplay is. I noticed in the opening credits that this was produced by the brothers, but written & directed by only one: Paul. Well, whatever the Coens Brother-esque politics may be, it was very well done and it shows that these two have taste, style, and a great deal of substance. Now, on to the story of the film…
Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) is the VP, Ad Sales for a Sports Illustrated-type magazine. When a major corporation takes over the magazine, he is demoted and a young executive on the rise (Topher Grace) is placed as Dan’s boss. Not only does this irritate Dan, it raises enormous fears about layoffs and the futures of the loyal (if somewhat unmotivated) staff. Dan’s family is also about to change: he’s got a new baby on the way, his daughter (Scarlett Johansson) wants to transfer to NYU and face life in the big city, and, with his professional life on the rocks, he is increasingly unnerved with his life. Making matters worse, Grace’s character – Carter Duryea – starts dating Ben’s daughter after HIS marriage ends. So, that’s the set-up and the film is content to follow these characters as they react to the situations instead of pushing for a standard 3-act plot.
What the film does so well is it never panders to the audience and, more importantly, to the characters. It doesn’t allow anyone to become the cookie-cutter characters that would have made for an acceptable, if unremarkable, film. Grace’s character, Carter, knows that he’s out of his league but is carried along by his ambitious desires and the political push of the corporate ladder. He’s no Sammy Glick, though. This is someone with doubts, fears, and emptiness – he’s just got the corporate rhetoric down pat. And he is as stunned as anybody when he completely lets down his guard whenever he gets in the company of Scarlett’s character, Alex. This sort of fully-rounded character gave me someone who I didn’t always root for, but never rooted against. Instead, it was a character I could relate to.
I hear that Topher Grace is excellent in the upcoming film, “P.S.” with Laura Linney. I felt he was great in “Traffic” and even in his cameo in “Oceans 11.” Here, he continues to show that he is more than Eric Forman on “That ‘70s Show.” He’s a confident actor who knows when to go big and when to tone it down. It almost seemed silly to see him leading a team of adults, but the film owns up to that and it is precisely why he worked so well. I knew that he could do deadpan comedy (and there’s some of that here), but he uses the comedy in a very natural and somewhat dramatic way.
Dennis Quaid has been off my radar for a while. His earlier movies (“The Right Stuff,” “Enemy Mine,” and “Innerspace”) were ones I seemed to watch endlessly while growing up but, with the exception of “Traffic,” I feel like he’s been lost in a bit of a bog recently. Here, he plays an everyman. An everyman to some filmmakers and to some actors may mean “dry,” but Quaid infuses him with the sort of layers that we – the real everymen and women – actually have: the funny layers, the sad layers, the contemplative layers and, over all, the HEART. He’s great in this role.
Scarlett Johannson is gorgeous. In addition to that, I think that she’s incredibly talented. She’s not given too terribly much to do here and her chemistry with Topher is questionable, but she gives a light and energy to every scene she’s in. Perhaps it was the editing process that slightly cut down her part, but she is really used as a catalyst for the dramatic turns in the relationship between Quaid’s and Grace’s characters.
Supporting roles were solidly filled out by Marg Helgenberger, Malcolm McDowell, David Paymer, and Philip Baker Hall (with probably, and most surprisingly, the weakest performance in the whole movie).
As I mentioned earlier, one of the things I loved the most about “About A Boy” was the mood it set. To a large part, that was helped by the music. As is usually the case, this music was temp but it reinforced the feeling the Weitz brothers were going for. I hope that the music by David Byrne and Peter Gabriel sticks around for the final release.
We’ve all witnessed and experienced the effects of corporate mergers. I don’t know of anyone who has completely escaped the clutches of the AOL/Time Warners of this world. This movie shines a light on the buzzwords, the strategies, and the atmosphere of the predator and prey in that environment. But, mostly, it shines a light on the people inside of those companies. And, having been part of the corporate machine (before I turned into an unemployed, free preview screening junkie), I know that nothing is really as obvious as it seems. The predator isn’t always a teeth-baring wolf, he/she may just be an ambitious worker who wants to make sense of bigger being better (at least that’s what I’ve tried to convince myself). The buzzwords are really a metaphor – in a corporate world, nothing is clear-cut and straight-forward, but the truths underlying them are clear. Perhaps that’s why they apparently ditched the earlier title, “Synergy,” to the more straight-forward, “In Good Company.”
It really did affect me and I’ll need to think for a little while longer to figure out exactly how. But I have no big complaints and I cannot recommend this movie enough.
-- Sam the Downsized Eagle
Thanks, man. I think technically, this one is more a Paul Weitz picture than a Chris Weitz picture because Chris is getting ready for HIS DARK MATERIALS. Sounds great, though, and I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself, and hopefully soon. I really do think Topher Grace is going to be one of the biggest names in screen comedy over the next few decades. The guy’s got deadly timing, no matter what, and a natural presence onscreen that filmmakers finally seem to be making good use of this year.
"Moriarty" out.
