The Company Men [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

The Company Men explores the very contemporary issues of the effect of redundancy during a recession and its specific effect on the personal lives of the people at the receiving end of the dreaded layoff notice. There are several stages to the process. Firstly, from the corporate perspective the company, in this case a US company in shipbuilding, is under enormous pressure to perform for its stockholders as the economic slump bites and orders fall off. The all too predictable response is to cut costs and since payroll is the biggest cost, this means cutting jobs.

The axe cuts deep and the company is forced to make difficult decisions to terminate long serving and loyal staff. The film focuses on three of these people and explores the various personal issues involved. There is initial incredulity and some bitterness that they could have been treated in this way, but optimism about finding a new job. Then realisation that it is difficult in a harsh economic climate for someone of 37 to find employment, let alone someone nearing retirement. People react in different ways to both the emotional issues of being out of a job and the economic implications and most of the film focuses on these aspects.

This an interesting and absorbing film, but in many ways depressing as the situation it describes is one which many people will be able to relate to or will have experienced at some stage in their lives. Ben Affleck plays a confident Sales Director, Chris Cooper is the older, senior executive, who has worked his way up from the shop floor and Tommy Lee Jones is one of the company's founders and a senior statesman. Affleck is particularly outstanding and his reaction to the economic reality of his new status is quite revealing as all the trappings of his middle class life come under threat.

So to summarise, a worthwhile, gritty film which explores important real life issues, but certainly not a light hearted way to while away an hour or two.

Tough Company - depressing current drama.

This drama is quite a good watch, surprisingly. Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones are excellent as their usual roles and the film is well thought out, and real in feel. The story runs as expected, interesting and entertaining to an an extent, even if arrestingly morose at first. Redundancies in banking aside, I fear the only people who will probably see this are Affleck fans, and that is not a shame.

It's 2008, and America's financial market has crashed, with their largest bank closing. This lead to thousands of redundancies, with this film focusing in on dramatic life changes for a leading arrogant banker and CEO as they are knocked off their perches.

The film takes itself seriously, and its very nature makes it an almost gruelling watch, which I'm sure is the point...but does deliver an acceptable viewing and lighter finish. The film is arguably too long, limited and very reliant on the 2 main leads, but it does have a nice support cast (Costner, Walker and Bello) and tries to follow a feel good road.

Overall, just a good film.

I enjoyed the film with the four famous actors. I am the same age as Tommy Lee Jones. Tommy is always casted as one of he "good guys"; so he is in this film. The film is about corporations downsizing, individuals beging fired and going throught the trivialities of replacement courses. I used to be a consultant, and I have quite often asked people, "Who is it that survives"? Quite a few replies, "The strongest"! Wrong, it is the the fittest. People who can adapt. The film has a lot in common with Nevil Shute' old novel from 1938 with the title "Ruined City", where Mr. Warren returns to the city of his childhood and revives an old industry and creates hope for a lot of people.

The end of this film - which I am not to reveal - is full of hope, but is it feasabale in todays' global competition? The Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen used to say, "There must be logic in the micro universe of the fairy tale". I do not see the end as logic, but it it beautiful, and it brings hope. But it is probably an illusion. Therefore I must conclude that the most important feature of the film is watching how people react differently to their loss and their new situation. And quite interesting to see kevin Konstner in a new role.

Erik Meldgaard, 65, Denmark