In Good Company

Funny business: Promising In Good Company ends with a rough fourth quarter

By Anthony Del Valle

The first two-thirds of writer/director Paul Weitz's "In Good Company" is a welcome surprise--a comedy both funny and touching about the heartbreak of big business.

Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) is a 51-year-old ad-sales chief with a deluxe Manhattan office, a beautiful home in the suburbs, a daughter (Scarlett Johansson) in college and all the prestigious debt that goes with American success. His world is turned upside down when he's demoted to No. 2 man to 26-year-old whiz kid Carter Duryea (Topher Grace). Duryea talks corporate psychobabble. He speaks warmth and teamwork, but the implication is, "You better agree with me or I will destroy you."

The painting of corporate America as a soulless demon is nothing new, of course, but much of In Good Company gives us the picture from both angles. Sure, we identify with Foreman's humiliation, but we also see how Foreman and his cronies are a part of the problem. They're not open to change, and they charge the atmosphere with negativity. Yes, Duryea is at times heartless--he's ruthlessly ambitious--but we also see his fear, his hand being forced not just by the company's need to survive, but by the actions of unbending employees like Foreman.

If the film's final third didn't get all gooey on us, if Weitz had been content to explore the dichotomy of capitalism without passing judgment (with everyone learning, with tears, that family is more important than business) then the movie might have been a total triumph. You walk away feeling as if the morality of big business is more complicated than the moviemakers are willing to admit.

Grace's performance, though, is a consistently remarkable blending of smart, urban boy/man angst. Unlike the film, he never makes a false move.