The Company Men

Summary: A MBA educated corporate employee, Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is let go due to a downsizing and forced to change his life. He works for his brother-in-law, Jack Dolan (Kevin Costner) as a construction laborer while losing his house, car, and golf membership. The same firm also downsizes two older employees in Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) and Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones). McClary makes out better because he was an executive and had options. The film looks at the impact of the downsizing culture and what happens to the men who lose their jobs.

Review: The movie had an all-star cast. It was very well made and it had a nice story to tell. The acting was superb with the older cast playing their age. The movie didn't tell the entire story, but had multiple scenes that made you get what happened without wasting the film time to do it.

Further Question/Philosophy/Theme: Is corporate culture really as pervasive as the movie paints it to be. Are the employees always afraid to lose their jobs? How does the world even make sense? While the main protagonists and cast were middle management and above, I'm sure the thousands of "serfs" that lost their jobs had it much worse.

Power Rating (Out of 5): 4 My only problem with the movie is that it was on a good topic, but the truth is the world is a lot tougher than the one portrayed. I'm suppose to feel bad for employees who were clearing six figures with incentives throughout the film. I'm suppose to believe that construction is an available job nowadays in America if you lose your white collar job. It could have went deeper into some things in the movie, but I guess its brevity was a plus.

Favorite Quotes: Phil Woodward: "You know the worst part. The world didn't stop. The newspaper still came every morning. The automatic sprinklers shut off at six. Jeff, next door, still washes his car every Sunday. My life ended. Nobody noticed."

Jack Dolan: "Said he made 700 times what the average GTX worker made last year. What do you think? Salinger working 700 times harder than the welder pounding hot wheeler into the tanker all day?"