I doubt The Company Men will generate good box office because everybody’s looking for positive economic news and this movie doesn’t have much. John Wells’ study of three executives downsized into irrelevance isn’t a feel-good movie by any means, despite its somewhat upbeat ending. A sober look at the death of the American corporation, white-male version, it shows how the recession has pummeled not just cities but also those leafy suburbs where captains of industry are accustomed to lives of leisure.
This sturdy movie reaffirms Ben Affleck’s rebirth as a major actor in an ensemble production also featuring stunning turns by Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson and a surprisingly effective, earthy Kevin Costner.
If that seems too male-oriented for you, you’re not registering Rosemarie DeWitt’s strikingly low-key and persuasive performance as Affleck’s wife. He plays Bob Walker, the sales executive who carries the narrative; she plays Maggie, the realist of the couple.
The movie is about the fragmentation of GTX Corporation, a Boston-based transportation company attempting to stay afloat by selling off its divisions. Run by the inflexible James Salinger (Nelson), it’s losing money, its share values inflated beyond performance. When Salinger butts heads with best friend and shipbuilding division head Gene McLary (Jones), Salinger prevails; the fallout includes the firing of not only Walker and numerous other minions, but also of Phil Woodard (Cooper), too old to get another job. Cooper, as usual, is fantastic: When he throws stones at the GTX building, his Phil falls short. But Phil never misses the emotional target.
Writer-director John Wells, who was executive producer of the TV series “ER,” captures the greyness of the recession by contrasting the gloss of McLary’s and Walker’s homes with the decaying industrial buildings of the Worcester Shipyard where McLary aims to revive the entrepreneurship – the tangibility – that marked the GTX he and Salinger launched.
This is the third film of 2010 to use the Boston area as its platform: Suburban Charlestown is the site of Affleck’s deservedly acclaimed crime movie, The Town, Worcester ground zero in The Fighter, the Mark Wahlberg-Christian Bale knockout that breathed new life into boxing flicks. One reason the area may be emblematic is the contrast between such working-class neighborhoods and suburbs as the South End and Roxbury and better-preserved, more expensive redoubts like Concord and Wellesley. [The Weinstein Company]
The key question Wells raises is, what do you do with your life when you’re fired, when the prosperity is gone but keeping up appearances is the one thing that keeps you going? Affleck’s Walker won’t tell his parents he was fired; only far in, when his son grows depressed, will he tell even him. The trappings of his life – the Porsche Boxster, access to the golf course, the vacations– are slowly stripped away, even as his wife tries to keep him grounded. Wells shrinks Walker’s world visually, from Boxster to Impala and from designer suits to Levis.
Finally, pride badly rusted, psyche battered by the constant rejections he encounters in the outplacement cubicle GTX so generously provides its castoffs, Walker signs up for work with his brother Jack (Costner), a homebuilder specializing in restorations. It doesn’t go well at first, and he’s always looking for a way back into the marketplace. But at least Walker’s getting back on his feet.
Things don’t go so well for Phil, who slides into deep depression, dyeing his hair to no avail and ultimately becoming a casualty. McLary, meanwhile, retains his integrity and gets a foothold on a new career after Salinger, the CEO who makes $22 million a year, lets him go. The tirades are powerful, the message clear: Companies – especially ones eager for sale – don’t care.
The ending suggests that American manufacturing can come back. Perhaps. That is less convincing than the drama of the lives of men who have given their all to the company and are cast off. Nevertheless, The Company Men, like the 2009 George Clooney vehicle Up in the Air, is a powerful look at what can happen when the corporate fabric unravels, endangering notions of community – and masculinity – that keep U.S. society going.
