Movie Review: The Company Men

StarBuzz Weekly, Toronto-January 21, 2011 : Film: The Company Men
Direction: John Wells

Cast: Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Craig T Nelson, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Rosemarie De Witt and others.
Rating: **1/2

The movie The Company Men is certainly one of the biggest draws as far as the entire storyline of the movie is concerned. The subject is very much contemporary as it deals with the sacking of people from their work place and all this to lessen the burden of the company. Thus all those who get fired from their jobs have to undergo utter embarrassment in their social life as well as extreme stress in their private life is something which is portrayed wonderfully here. The three men who play the protagonists have done extremely well along with the other cast members who too have added that extra special to make it quite an interesting and poignant tale to watch.

Ben Affleck plays Bobby Walker, Tommy Lee Jones plays Gene Mc Clary and Chris Cooper plays the role of Phil Woodward with strong conviction. Others too play their parts with great aplomb.

The story has Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) being handed the pink slip along with the others who are to be sacked too. Bobby who just loves life and the frills attached refuses to accept the truth and keeps on his brave front of high end cars, lavish life style etc. His behavior is anything but good and insults his relatives openly.

Chris Cooper’s character Phil Woodward is quite affected by the pink slip being passed on to others even though his name had not yet been mentioned. He suffers from a near mental breakdown and has gone on to insult one of the company’s oldest employees Gene Mc Clary played by Tommy Lee Jones.

James Salinger, the boss played by Craig T Nelson is shown as a hard hearted individual who is quite a stringent man when it comes to business and dealings. Thus the overall storyline has a very today’s touch which will have every individual feeling for the characters and quite able to connect to the story based on tough economic times. 
-Sampurn Wire