IN GOOD COMPANY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: language, sexual implications

Rated:

Every once in awhile a movie comes along that just resonates with the audience. I don't know if it's how much the heroine's personality meshes with mine, that I identify with everything the characters are going through, or just that it hit the right chord, but In Good Company is one of the few films that has left me smiling long after the final credits rolled.

Just when you think life is perfect, everything changes. Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) is on top of the world. The head sales associate for a popular sports magazine, he has a loving family and life all figured out... or so he thinks. One evening, everything changes. His beautiful pushing-forty wife Anne (Marg Helgenberger) announces that she's pregnant. Oldest daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson) wants to move into New York to attend one of the finest colleges in the country. Worst of all, the company has been undergoing changes and they're transferring in someone to take control of the branch and bring up their sales quota. Dan's replacement and new boss is twenty-six year old Carter Duryea (Topher Grace). A workaholic with no experience in selling ad space in glossy magazines, Carter is dealing with a marriage on the rocks and his own insecurity about the sudden peak his fast-track career has taken.

Immediately, Carter and Dan get off on the wrong foot. Carter has all kinds of big ideas on how to boost sales, but is forced by the company to start liquidating its less productive moneymakers. Some of Dan's best salesmen are taken off the payroll. In the meantime, his own job security is at risk and he's forced to take out a second mortgage to keep Alex in college. Carter's marriage has come to a dramatic conclusion in the form of divorce papers, and one afternoon he meets Alex on the street. The two soon form an attachment that leads to romance, but neither one wants to break the news to dear old dad.

One of the best things about this movie is how realistic it is in forms of the characters. You can believe that these people exist, with all their cute little vices. There's only one fault, and that's the character of Alex. I find it difficult to believe that this quiet, stay-at-home girl would go out of her way to seduce her dad's boss, no matter how cute he is. The aggressiveness of this simply doesn't fit the rest of the formula. The humor is very good, sometimes clichéd but always enjoyable: panning out to show that Carter is jogging in front of a moving screen, Dan giving his daughter's boyfriend the third degree over the phone, his wife complaining of nausea and dropping the family dinner on the kitchen floor. The casting was great for all the parts, and there are a variety of minor characters that waltz in and out with their own unique dramatic flair (including Selma Blair, and Malcolm McDowell). One of the first people cut from the payroll is the office's arrogant cynic, leading to the quip, "Maybe there is justice after all."

Alex takes Carter to her dorm room and then unbuttons his shirt; the two kiss and she pulls him down onto the bed, but I've seen more showy love scenes in PG films. Her father demands to know if she's sleeping with his boss. One thing that did bother me was the implication that she didn't view it as love, but rather a "fun" thing to do, and had no intention of making a long-term commitment. It shows that she has an extremely warped view of intimacy. Dan moons the guests at his birthday party, but we don't see the action in full. Violence consists of Dan punching Alex in the face when he finds out about his daughter's love affair. Language is more problematic, with a couple abuses of GD, mild profanities and abuses of deity, and a half dozen uses of s**t. The rating comes from a single mention of being on crack, used as a joke. I don't believe it deserves a PG13 rating.

It's unfortunate that the morals are a little off, and the language is a bit crude at times, because In Good Company has a likable set of realistic characters with true problems to work through. It also has a very different kind of ending that will leave the audiences with a variety of mixed feelings. You want what's best for all involved, and hope that ultimately they will find it.