The Company Men (2010)

Directed by: John Wells | 104 minutes | drama | Actors: Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kevin Costner, Craig T. Nelson, Suzanne Rico, Kent Shocknek, Adrianne Krstansky, Lewis D. Wheeler, Celeste Oliva, Tom Kemp, Nancy Villone, Chris Everett, Maria Bello, Lance Greene, Kathy Harum, Allyn Burrows, Anthony Estrella, David Catanzaro, Anthony O’Leary, Angela Rezza, Sasha Spielberg, Maryann Plunkett, Patricia Kalember, Dana Eskelson, James Colby, Richard Snee

The timing for the release of ‘The Company Men’ couldn’t have been better. At a time when companies are coming up with red numbers, new austerity plans and reorganisations almost daily and unemployment seems to be rising by the day, a film that addresses this theme is very appropriate. Released in the US and Canada in late 2010, The Company Men addresses this painful subject for many and attempts to shed light on the impact a layoff can have on a family with children.

The victim in this case is Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck). Bobby is doing well in life, he is married to Maggy (Rosemarie DeWitt), has two children, lives in a spacious detached house and the Porsche that is at the door may also be there. When Bobby one day happily whistles into his company (GTX, a company in the shipping industry) only to be told that he can pack his things immediately due to a large-scale reorganization, the carefree life that he and his family had until then changes. lead abruptly. Since he is not the only unemployed person in America, a new job is not easy for the taking. And because Bobby and Maggy haven’t built up a large financial buffer, the painful consequences soon become apparent in the form of selling just about everything they own, from the car to eventually even the house.

Bobby is not the only victim of the reorganization, later in the story we also meet the also fired Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper). Phil is around sixty, for him it is an even more difficult task to be able to work somewhere. The characters in ‘The Company Men’ are all convincing and the strong acting makes them credible. Because also the other roles, in particular of Tommy Lee Jones who plays Gene McClary, who seems to be one of the few who really stands up for the mass layoffs, and of Rosemarie DeWitt who, through her undiminished positivism and goodness, is a welcome addition to the quite arrogant Bobby, certainly at first sight, are very strongly filled in. The convincing acting and the certain degree of recognizability of the story are the biggest plus points of the film.

Still, it’s not all that good what ‘The Company Men’ does. For example, Bobby’s family is not exactly the standard modal family. Before his dismissal, Bobby had a salary of more than a hundred thousand euros a year, is regularly on the golf course and, as mentioned, drives around in a fat Porsche. And although the impact of Bobby’s unexpected unemployment on his life is ultimately very great, it is more difficult to sympathize with these ‘rich people’ who already lived in (too) great luxury. As a result, as confrontational as it may be for some, the film is not as compelling as it might have been.

Nevertheless, the end result is certainly convincing. Despite the aforementioned flaws, ‘The Company Men’ manages to offer more than enough to keep you captivated from start to finish. In the later scenes, Bobby even manages to sympathize; he goes through a nice, slightly obvious, transformation throughout the film. ‘The Company Men’ responds well to current events and has therefore become an interesting representation of a very topical problem.