In Good Company [DVD] [2004]

Dan Foreman is a steady family man who juggles the responsibilities of home and work with the skill of a circus performer. He’s liked and respected by his colleagues at the advertising sales of a sports magazine and loved and adored by his wife and two daughters. Life is good until two huge bombshells descend on him within hours. Firstly he discovers that his wife is pregnant and at 51 he’s naturally worried that he’s too old to be a dad again. Secondly the company he works for is taken over by a huge global corporation and shock horror, a young wizz kid has been placed above him.

Carter Duryea is the 26 year old executive who’s been groomed for big things within the corporation. For all his management speak verbal diarrhoea he’s really a nervous young man, unsure of how to deal with the new team he’s just taken command of. To round off Carter’s problems he wife of only 7 months leaves him, leaving him alone and more than a little forlorn in the strange town. He forces himself an invitation to Dan’s home for dinner and it’s there than he meets and falls for Dan’s beautiful daughter Alex. How will Dan be able to cope with the idea of his younger boss also loving his daughter?

Dennis Quaid is perfect for this sort of role, as Dan he’s fills the part with an authoritarian fatherly figure than is not only totally believable but absolutely convincing. Topher Grace puts in a good turn as Carter but it’s Scarlett Johansson that comes out of their coupling with the most plaudits. Her beauty goes without saying but she has a scene presence that goes beyond mere good looks and makes for a most captivating performance.

I really enjoyed the film, especially the ending which whilst not totally unpredictable certainly didn’t serve up the “happy” ending you might expect.

Dan Foreman, (Dennis Quaid), is the successful Director of Marketing for Sports America Magazine. He actually likes his work, which is good, since he is a twenty-five year veteran of the ad industry. Dan is a fifty-something family man, married to forty-ish Anne Foreman, (stunning Marg Helgenberger from TV's CSI), who, we learn early on, is pregnant - a pre-menopausal surprise! It's OK, they're thrilled about the upcoming event! Daughter Alex, (Scarlett Johansson), an eighteen year-old college student, and her slightly younger sister Jana, (Zena Gray), really make-up the kind of warm, loving family anyone would want to belong to. These are decent, intelligent, normal people, who all seem to possess a sense of humor - some quirkier than others.

Carter Duryea, (Topher Grace), is a 26 year-old marketing wiz for GlobeCom, a multinational corporate conglomerate, owned and run by a Rupert Murdoch-like figure, "Teddy K," (Malcolm McDowell). Carter has frequently impressed his colleagues and managers with his creativity. His latest success, a cell phone ad campaign which targets preschoolers with dinosaur multi-colored mini phones, that roar instead of ring, has put smiles on GlobeCom employees' faces. Carter is driven, smart, smug and filled with energy fueled by lots of caffeine. He chugs down cup after cup of Starbucks' best. His marriage to a shallow, spoiled, deb type is definitely on the wane. Maybe he should spend more time at home, less at work. But then he wouldn't be GlobeCom's golden boy.

When GlobeCom acquires Sports America Magazine, young Turk Carter Duryea is promoted to head of ad sales. Guess whose position he usurps? At least Dan still has a job - as Carter's assistant - his "wing man!" Carter moves into Dan's corner office. Believe it or not, there are worse nightmares. Corporate acquisitions and mergers frequently trigger downsizing and lay-offs. Dan's entire sales team and many other Sports America employees are fired. Meanwhile, Dan's emotions run the gamut from rage to disbelief. And Carter doesn't know too much about magazine sales. He does talk a lot about "synergy," however - a popular buzz word around GlobeCom. In a rousing speech to his new "team," he asks them if they are "psyched for an awesome quarter." Although nobody seems to understand what this all means, they are eager to suck-up to the new boss, so they nod their heads in agreement.

"Synergy" we are informed by Teddy K., "means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself - the most empowering, unifying and exciting part." Carter comes to learn what Dan knows from Day 1 - "synergy" does not sell ads!

Weitz has structured his film in such a way that as we observe the parallel lives of Foreman and Duryea, we do not villanize the aggressive, yuppie brat. In fact, the further we move into the story, the more sympathetic both Carter and Dan become as characters. Dan may be depressed, humiliated and frustrated about his demotion, but trust me when I say that Carter's life is not the proverbial "bowl of cherries!" The juxtaposition of scenes contrasting the two men's worlds is truly effective. In one instance Dan signs papers taking out a second mortgage to pay for Alex's transfer to NYU, plus the expenses a new baby will incur - while Carter signs his divorce papers and buys a top-of-the-line Porsche. Dan's contented family life, along with his temporary financial difficulties are far removed from the financially secure but very lonely and isolated situation young Carter experiences.

Dan invites Carter to dinner after a long business meeting - not through hospitality, but by accident. He never expects Carter to accept. Carter and Dan's daughter Alex click, subtly enough that both parents are unaware. Carter finds in Alex a person he can talk to with honestly, without pretension. Alex experiences similar feelings. The situation really becomes weird when the two begin a relationship, while, at the same time, Dan and Carter's relationship improves - in many ways resembling a father-son situation, even when things turn violent. The dynamic between the two businessmen continually shifts, as do those between Alex and her father, Alex and Carter, Dan and Anne, etc.. There are enough wily twists and turns in the plot to keep things lively throughout. Nothing sappy or contrived here!

This is an intelligent film well worth watching. I recommend it highly.
JANA

The main thrust of In Good Company is to sketch the lives of people caught in the throes of capricious M&As but it offers an accurate glimpse into modern office environments -- motivating co-workers, intra-office hostilities, nepotism and favoritism, and so forth -- much of which is handled with uncanny weight.

The movie is not without it lighter moments though, every mention of harebrained co-branding strategies or of platitudes like "synergy" had me grinning and cringing at the same time.

While the film's ultimate resolutions are too feel-good for its own good, it couches a great deal of sensitivity for its characters. We readily relate to the folks in the company. The flurry of indiscrimate downsizing is not easy to watch, nor is the apprehension thereof.

On the family front, father-daughter relationships are well played out. Dennis Quaid in his bipolar role of experience and naivete guns for the Jack Nicholesque and nearly gets there.

But no question, the show belongs to the youngsters. Scarlett Johansson continues in the same understated confident streak as Lost in Translation. Her chemistry with Topher Grace feels very natural, who by the way has to be among the most promising young actors around. His versatile performance hits just the right notes in both measured humor and complex poise. That we're able to feel for his whippersnapper character at all is evidence enough.

For its assured near-noirish tone or the soft rock on its soundtrack that captures two ends of the generational spectrum, I'd say this film would make for an exquisite evening rental. You won't be disappointed.