Boy, I thought I was bitter. Chad, one of the men in whose company I just spent the past hour and a half, makes me look like Leo Buscaglia. The movie I'm talking about, for those of you who don't read the trades, is In the Company of Men, hailed as the year's most controversial movie. It's about two midlevel company men who feel their jobs are insecure and their women are manipulative bitches. Chad, the handsome, confident, supremely angry one, who's pretty much the embodiment of white male rage, talks his meeker buddy Howard into a plan to "regain our dignity": they will find a semi-pathetic woman at the field office they've been assigned to for a six-week tour of duty, make her fall in love with one or both of them, then dump her, just for the joy of knowing for the rest of their lives that no matter how screwed they get, "no one will ever be able to get us the way we got her."
Charming, eh? But you'd be surprised how gripping it is. It's more than just the rubbernecking-at-a-car-wreck syndrome, or the shock of recognition as you start to realize you know people like this. The movie is very well done; the acting is terrific (god, I hope Aaron Eckhart, who plays Chad, is acting); the writing is sharp and clever.
I was pretty appalled by the audience, who laughed during Chad's humiliation of a young intern, which to me was not remotely funny, and during Chad's deaf jokes (the woman they seduce is deaf). And I think I'm going to have to boycott Cineplex Odeon theaters until they stop showing that goddamn not-nearly-short-enough film about Mr. Bean taking an exam. Ring, ring -- it's the clue phone for you, Mr. Odeon. MR. BEAN IS NOT FUNNY!!!! I've seen this goddamn film three times now, because they insist on showing it before every single movie they play, no matter how inappropriate, and -- I cannot stress this enough -- IT IS NOT FUNNY.
Back to homepage
Reviews A to F
Reviews G to L
Reviews M to R
Reviews S to Z
Search