The Company Men (2010)

The story centers on a year in the life of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company - and how that affects them, their families, and their communities. By far the best thing about this movie is easily Ben Affleck he has the most charisma and he is a down to earth person he tries to provide for his family but also for his son you know to have a future and keep his house everyone else in this movie was just OK you can't really feel anything for Tommy Lee Jones he cheats his wife and he's a pretty much wooden character the same goes for Chris Cooper and what the hell is Kevin Costner's role is in this film? But anyways the dramatic heft is in there when it's needed not a bad movie it just needed more good characters especially when every single actor is talented. Another thing that i haven't mentioned isn't it weird that Ben Affleck has played along side actors and actresses that played a villain, a person or a hero in DC and Marvel movies? for instance Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever, Kevin Costner in Man of Steel and BVS but also Chris Cooper in Amazing Spider-Man 2.

GTX Corporation used to be a ship builder, but it's now a conglomerate. Head man James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson) decides to cut jobs to improve the company's balance sheet, and boost the stock price. Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) is a long time company man who started on the shop floor. Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) is James Salinger's right hand man, and reluctantly executes the order. Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is a successful sales guy. When he's downsized, he has trouble dealing with it. His life with his wife Maggie (Rosemarie DeWitt) strains. Can he swallow his pride and ask brother-in-law Jack Dolan (Kevin Costner) for help?There are too many lead characters scattered in different directions. It diffuses all the emotional tension. Ben Affleck is playing his character too angry. It's a one-note performance that changes way too late. The final solution is too happy Hollywood. It makes the whole movie feel like a sermon. There really isn't any need for it especially if the filmmaker is shooting for some 'truth'.

John Wells' The Company Men is the first film I've seen since Jacob Aaron Estes' The Details that makes a bold, commendable attempt at penetrating the interworkings of the male psyche. It shows diminishing feelings of a male's self worth and value after being fired from his job, using the 2007-08 economic crisis in the United States as the backdrop for this story. Considering how timely and significant this material is, it's unfortunate how forgotten and ignored this film is.The film follows the impact the crisis had on the fictional, multi-billion dollar business Global Transportation Systems ("GTX"), which is facing large and prolific downsizing after the market plummets. One of the men let go is Bob Walker (Ben Affleck), a responsible marketing agent who is used to driving to his beautifully furnished office in his silver Porsche five days a week before coming home to his wife and two children. At first, while upset, he is confident that he'll be employed and his six-figure salary reinstated at another white-collar firm. It is after weeks of applying, making phone calls, and lurking at an employment agency with little success or movement that he realizes just how poorly the U.S. economy is and how low ones self-worth can go after being the victim of downsizing.Meanwhile, the company CEO James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson) has little suffering, but almost every employee is left to fend for themselves in some way, shape, or form. Bob looks to his longtime friend and coworker Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) for assistance, but finds he is struggling to keep his head above water as well. Finally, when all hope is lost, Bob reluctantly accepts a position hanging drywall with his brother-in-law Jack Dolan (Kevin Costner), who already views him as privileged and slightly ungrateful. This offers a relativistic moment in both Bob and Jack's life as they each wear each others shoes for a little while. Jack can see that while Bob is a mediocre carpenter, his heart was always in the right place and he was good at the white-collar work he did. Bob, on the other-hand, gets a greater experience, which is to see his brother-in-law as a man loyal to his job, as many working class and lower-middle class family-men are.These kinds of moments are the moments I live for in film - when two parties recognize another person's way of life or begin to accept and understand their peers without such a close-minded view of one another. Not to mention, Wells - who also serves as writer - does a nice job at showing the effect the loss of a six-figure income has on a family. Several cutbacks are made, less entertainment is had, and life becomes a day-to-day challenge rather than a fast-moving, leisurely exercise. Wells is careful to not make the cutbacks seem overwhelming and unrealistic (IE: making the entire Walker family live out of their car or on the street), but he makes them more close-to-home and believable - seeing Bob's Porsche get repossessed is surprisingly heartbreaking.This leads to what the film is trying to show, which is crudely but wisely dubbed "male vanity." The term is just what it sounds like; the encompassing thought of feeling macho and being the sole source of life in a family. Bob isn't a man drenched in full-blown vain, however, he's used to being the breadwinner of the family, and when that title, responsibility, and its privileges are revoked without the company of a pink-slip, Bob is like a superhero without superpowers. Overtime he feels vulnerable, weak, and an unworthy man of the house. Wells makes this feeling accessible to us, the audience member, by giving us a look into a typical suburban family that had it all and lost it and the people on top who walked away mostly unburdened. The film's tagline, "In America, we give our lives to our jobs; it's time to take them back" bluntly states this and makes one recount their own job, whether it be a nurse or a retail worker.Ben Affleck gives a strong performance here, embodying the commonality, the strength, and the present weaknesses of an upper-middle class suit. Affleck is one of the strongest actors in the business today in my opinion, diverse, a terrific presence in all of his films, witty, and very, very relatable. Accompanied by the likes of Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Maria Bello - all of whom are on top of their came - he can do no wrong.The Company Men not only humanizes the white collar world, but provides us with a timely humanization of the world and a look into the effects the financial crisis left far too many Americans.Starring: Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Rosemarie DeWitt, Maria Bello, and Craig T. Nelson. Directed by: John Wells.

John Wells' 2010 drama "The Company Men" came out at the right time it needed to come out…during the Great Recession. It's all about the effects of the Great Recession on the American people. As far as that aspect is concerned, "The Company Men" accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, inform us of its effects. Unfortunately, that's all it does well and what's worse, this film came out a little too late to truly make a huge impact on the audience. It doesn't help that a better film on the Great Recession called "Up in the Air" came out a year earlier. We follow three employees (Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper) who have been let go from the same corporation due to downsizing in the midst of the recession. One (Affleck) sees his life of luxury with his wife and kids deteriorate as a result of being let go and being unable to find jobs that suit his needs. It gets to the point where he might have to rely on his brother-in-law (Kevin Costner) to help him out. One (Jones) has been friends with the CEO (Craig T. Nelson) since the very beginning, but now finds this friendship challenged due to the CEO's inconsistent future plans. And the third one (Cooper) is severely struggling to find a new job due to his old age. This film basically follows the paths that these three take to get back to normal. "The Company Men" does its part at informing us of how harmful the Great Recession is to the lives of the American people. The story is told decently and maintains its focus on whom the story should be focusing on: the three main characters or at least the crucial people in each of their lives. While I wouldn't say that there were any standout performances in this picture that I could really praise, the actors do their best at taking their roles seriously and giving them the respect they deserve. The problem I had with "The Company Men" is that it's straight up boring. The characters we have to spend time with just feel bland and forgettable. There's no real complexity to their personalities and there's nothing unique about these people that I've seen in other movies. Ben Affleck's character comes to mind when naming a surprisingly one-dimensional storyline. While the story tackles relevant subject matter, it's executed in a predictable and unsurprising manner. Because the characters are dull, we're sort of watching something that keeps moving along but doesn't emotionally impact us in the slightest. We know exactly what will happen at least 10 seconds before it happens. We know what the outcomes for the characters and the future relationship between certain characters will be. We pretty much know how everything will pan out, so there's no real point in even watching this film if that's how we feel about it. "The Company Men" doesn't do anything awful besides having a predictable story and cardboard characters. If you'll settle for a film that informs at a relevant time, this does what it's designed to do. Otherwise, look elsewhere.