The Company Men

This 2010 drama starring Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee-Jones and Kevin Costner made for a serious recipe of cinematic status – however despite its serious cast, its ingredients weren’t enough to keep its audience enthused every step of the way. USC Graduate John Wells whom you may remember from ‘One Hour Photo’ or television shows ‘ER’ or ‘The West Wing’ wrote and directed this film. Set in Boston, I found the Boston accents most amusing in this movie.

The story is a solid one and we follow men through their agony, fears and frustrations as they are ‘let-go’ or down-sized from their company. All of them successful and living in opulence and learning once again how to move forward and transition despite the grim-looking options presented to them. I found Ben Affleck’s character, ‘Bobby Walker’ quite daft as everyone but he moved with the flow of things, and he kept fighting against the reality of what was happening to him.

Thanks to the American Economic Crisis/Recession, times are incredibly rough and only those that adapt and are resilient can survive. It doesn’t matter what you were paid before or your performance before – everyone is given a clean slate; it is all about survival. No fancy camera-angles, beautiful cinematography or action sequences; it was a poor attempt at gaining a steady interest from its viewers because we didn’t have enough back-story or connections with the characters. When they lost it all – we could not ‘feel’ or empathize with them.