Contemporary credit crunch America is the subject. Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper are the stars. And yet despite a valiant attempt at articulating a financial system in crisis, the novice writer-director Wells simply isn’t savvy enough, or willing enough, to truly interrogate his subject. Thus what we get is the story of several workers at a Boston shipping firm (most notably salesman Affleck and vice president Jones) and how downsizing affects their domestic lives and their belief in the American Dream.
There are moments of intriguing grit here, as when Affleck’s white-collar smoothie is forced to sell his silver Porsche and sprawling family home and work for blue collar house-builder and brother-in-law Costner (stealing every scene, and seemingly reborn as a balding character actor, instead of a big-screen hero). But it’s all soft-soaped for a clumsy, happy-ever-after finalé that suggests it’s simply back to business as usual for the US economy.
In terms of modern recession era-movies, The Company Men is not as fumbled as Wall Street 2, nor is it as whip-smart as Up in the Air. The best you can say is that it’s timely.
John Wells, 15 (104min)