Company Men

Year: 2010

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Wells

Review

good film about the economic meltdown. is told from the point of view of white collar men who are victims of and perpetrators of massive layoffs. they may not be responsible for the economic meltdown (they’re not bankers or regulators), but they’re the kind of guys who certainly haven’t helped the country by looking at the bottom line, stock prices and shifting jobs overseas. it’s good to see it from this point of view because it’s one that i think is easily forgotten in an anti-bourgeois climate. these are people too and while their economic realities may not be as stark as most of the rest of country’s, it shows that even the well off are suffering too. tommy lee jones and craig nelson are the only company men who don’t really have anything to worry about from an economic standpoint. affleck is well off, but not obscenely rich and basically of just above average intelligence. it’s easy to say that he, and the people he represents, should have tucked away more for the future, but hindsight is 20/20 and even many of the “best” analysts didn’t think things would go the way they did. also good to see that it showed a couple truths about the recession: it has affected mostly men and especially the older generation.

one of the best ensemble casts of the year.

by the film’s end i got the definite feeling that the only thing that’s going to get us out of this is working together again and getting back to the roots of any economy – production, hard work, honest living. the film is optimistic about this, but i’m still undecided.

Watched in theater