[REVIEW] In Good Company
Feb. 2nd, 2005 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldIn Good Company this evening. I'd read good advance reviews in the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, the actors--Dennis Quaid, Scarlett Johansson, Topher Grace--are credible, and the basic plotline (51-year-old family man and advertising manager finds himself displaced from his position by a man half his age just as his eldest daughter goes off to university and his wife becomes pregnant, going on to face competition over his daughter with his new boss) was interesting.
What did I find out? The film worked for me, and not only as a date movie. Dennis Quaid's reactions may have been stereotyped and inevitable, but they were good reactions; Scarlett Johansson was luminous and poised; Topher Grace, I believe, gave an excellent performance of a confused young man, possessing a certain je ne sais quoi that appeals to audiences. He'll go far.
If only the ending was different. I won't give it away, but it'd be nice if people realized that the dehumanizing forces of a global capitalism that transforms economic life (and through the economy, all elements of life) pell-mell without any regards for the niceties of tradition were no different from the forces of national capitalisms which, a century ago, transformed economic life (and through the economy, all elements of life) pell-mell without any regards for the niceties of tradition. That irritated me; but then, one shouldn't expect movies to be the most self-conscious forms of popular culture.
What did I find out? The film worked for me, and not only as a date movie. Dennis Quaid's reactions may have been stereotyped and inevitable, but they were good reactions; Scarlett Johansson was luminous and poised; Topher Grace, I believe, gave an excellent performance of a confused young man, possessing a certain je ne sais quoi that appeals to audiences. He'll go far.
If only the ending was different. I won't give it away, but it'd be nice if people realized that the dehumanizing forces of a global capitalism that transforms economic life (and through the economy, all elements of life) pell-mell without any regards for the niceties of tradition were no different from the forces of national capitalisms which, a century ago, transformed economic life (and through the economy, all elements of life) pell-mell without any regards for the niceties of tradition. That irritated me; but then, one shouldn't expect movies to be the most self-conscious forms of popular culture.
