Corporate downsizing was recently rather adroitly presented in "Up in the Air" from the point of view of the bringer of bad news, suavely played by George Clooney. In this film television producer John Wells ("ER", "West Wing") looks at the issue more from the point of view of the victims. He does not concentrate on ordinary folk, but on three corporate high flyers abruptly parted from their affluent lifestyles. Chief among these is Bob Walker (Ben Affleck), thirty-something and regional sales manager for Boston-based transport equipment conglomerate GTX. Bob is living beyond his means anyway, and soon the big house and Porsche are gone and he and his family have moved in with his parents, his supportive wife Maggie (Catherine De Witt) going back to her old job as a nurse. Bob finds his new circumstances hard to take, but, ground down by the aftermath of his sacking and the fruitless search for a new job, he goes to work for his builder brother-in-law Jack (Kevin Costner).
Meanwhile his former superior Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) is also laid off, but getting a new job at 60 is virtually impossible and, lacking emotional support from his wife he turns to the bottle. The third sacked executive is Glen McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), a co-founder of the company and number two in the hierarchy, who happens to be having a discreet affair with the chief down-sizer, HR person Sally Wilcox (Maria Bellow).
This is a carefully crafted movie with some very competent acting and good lines but to me it fell rather flat. The story arc is predictable, and the villains are clichés. The three main characters are well drawn but it's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for them. Actually I did have some respect for Tommy Lee Jones' character, who did at least mourn the fate of a corporation which used to make things reduced to shuffling paper to keep up the share price. Ironically the paper shuffling makes him richer (he is a substantial stockholder in GTX). There are many other minor characters but most are paper thin. Craig T Nelson as the CEO does a nice study in unbridled greed and Kevin Costner is suitably blue collar as Jack the builder. Maria Bello's good looks interfered with her portrayal of the corporate Medusa – compare Tilda Swinton in a similar role (with Gorgeous George) in the far more dramatic "Michael Clayton. Tilda was beautiful, but also quite crackers, and both more dangerous and more believable.
I suppose if this were a TV movie I'd rate it as well above average, but the story is too trite to score well as a feature movie, the happy ending rather contrived and the excellent cast is under-utilized. Put it another way, I've seen better.
Meanwhile his former superior Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) is also laid off, but getting a new job at 60 is virtually impossible and, lacking emotional support from his wife he turns to the bottle. The third sacked executive is Glen McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), a co-founder of the company and number two in the hierarchy, who happens to be having a discreet affair with the chief down-sizer, HR person Sally Wilcox (Maria Bellow).
This is a carefully crafted movie with some very competent acting and good lines but to me it fell rather flat. The story arc is predictable, and the villains are clichés. The three main characters are well drawn but it's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for them. Actually I did have some respect for Tommy Lee Jones' character, who did at least mourn the fate of a corporation which used to make things reduced to shuffling paper to keep up the share price. Ironically the paper shuffling makes him richer (he is a substantial stockholder in GTX). There are many other minor characters but most are paper thin. Craig T Nelson as the CEO does a nice study in unbridled greed and Kevin Costner is suitably blue collar as Jack the builder. Maria Bello's good looks interfered with her portrayal of the corporate Medusa – compare Tilda Swinton in a similar role (with Gorgeous George) in the far more dramatic "Michael Clayton. Tilda was beautiful, but also quite crackers, and both more dangerous and more believable.
I suppose if this were a TV movie I'd rate it as well above average, but the story is too trite to score well as a feature movie, the happy ending rather contrived and the excellent cast is under-utilized. Put it another way, I've seen better.