PG, 109 mins
Another Soderbergh alumnus has a breakthrough movie this week. Topher Grace, whose privileged junkie wise-guy was one of the best things about Traffic, redeems himself after the execrable Win a Date with Tad Hamilton with an impressive performance in In Good Company.
He plays Carter, a 26-year-old hotshot who spews management buzzwords and guzzles coffee. He’s also 51-year-old Dan’s new boss and, it seems at first, his nemesis. Dennis Quaid is likeable as Dan, the head of a picture- perfect family unit that contains a nubile daughter (Scarlett Johansson) who soon becomes involved with Carter.
Being an old-fashioned kind of guy, Dan lets his fists do the talking, and by the end he’s back in his old job with a newly single daughter. It all feels rather too much like wish-fulfilment for middle-aged men who’d like to see young upstarts taught a thing or two.