KarateParty.org - In Good Company (2004)

Written and directed by

Paul Weitz

Cast

Dennis Quaid .... Dan Foreman

Topher Grace .... Carter Duryea

Scarlett Johansson .... Alex Foreman

Marg Helgenberger .... Ann Foreman

David Paymer .... Morty

Clark Gregg .... Mark Steckle

Philip Baker Hall .... Eugene Kalb

Selma Blair .... Kimberly

A lot of teenagers who work in crappy jobs for big businesses suspect that the people at the top don’t really know what they're doing. Some of those teenagers go on to university and a higher-level job in those same corporations. After all those years of hard study, and even harder work once they’ve started working, it can be painful to admit that your teenage suspicions were correct. In Good Company is about a high-flying 26-year old who comes to realise that.

Dennis Quaid and party balloons! This

is what the French call "Mise en scène
magnifique".

The film takes place in the current climate of corporate buzzwords, empty business theories, and messianic business leaders. It’s not the most savage indictment of the business world, but the most savage indictments have a tendency to become hectoring political statements rather than actual movies. Here business is not necessarily evil, but has become depersonalised, gimmicky, and arbitrary.

Dan Foreman is an old-school ad executive for Sports America magazine (which is essentially Sports Illustrated). He’s as you would imagine a near 50s family man who sells print ads for a sports magazine to be. But the company that owns Sports America is bought out by Teddy K, one of those messianic business leaders (played by Malcolm McDowell). The new parent company orders some shake-ups. Dan is demoted (he has too many expenses to just quit), and young hot shot Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) is given his job.

Carter knows he has no ad sales experience (his main qualification is designing dinosaur-themed cell phones), but in the era of the hyper-confident business grad he thinks he can overcome that. Naturally, he and Dan are at odds from the start. Dan thinks Carter’s not just too young, but is also crazy. Carter realises that Dan knows some things that he doesn’t. Eventually even Carter starts to suspect that the random demands from up high, usually demands to fire more people, are completely arbitrary. And outside of the office the pressures of being a hard-working corporate assassin start to destroy his life.

"And then the other guy says "I've

been eating hot buttered corn all

day!!!""

What elevates In Good Company above just a condemnation of current business practises is its extension of Carter’s problems to his personal life. While Carter’s life may be made a little too bleak, the film shows a guy who’s so focused on "getting it all" that’s he’s left with nothing (he starts out married, but soon gets divorced because he spends too much time at work). He’s a guy whose education and work experience have left him with no real skills in life or business. But Carter is thankfully more misguided than evil.

Carter starts rebelling against his bosses, mooching around Dan’s family, and dating Dan’s daughter (Scarlett Johansson). He’s a highly paid business professional who’s taking a serious look at his life for the first time.

"Your jumpshot is almost as deadly
as your charm."

Amazingly, according to the Internet Movie Database, the film makers really wanted someone from That ‘70s Show for the role of Carter and had offered it to Ashton Kutcher (even Danny Masterston would have been better). But Kutcher left the project due to "creative differences" and the film’s producers unwittingly dodged a bullet. Topher Grace is perfect in the role, getting the right comedy/drama balance.

The film itself isn’t perfect. Sometimes its jokes aren’t funny, sometimes they’re too obvious. It is to the film’s credit that some of the people who get fired deserved it, but it stills seems heavily weighted to the older characters. And the Carter dating Dan’s daughter subplot isn’t great. But it is the sort of credible character-driven comedy that doesn’t come around much any more, and is certainly worth a look.

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