"The Company Men" is a picture of the white collar worker during and after the economy since 2008. We see the CEOs getting millions of dollars in salary and bonuses while employees are
being let go, now called downsizing, to increase the bottom line, the
profit. There is no such thing as loyalty from an employee to a company
or a company to their employees, who helped build the company to make it
a big enough success that the corporation has a private jet and the
upper echelon has plenty of stock options that even when let go they
don't hurt economically.
James Salenger (Craig T. Nelson), and Gene McClay (Tommy Lee Jones), are best friends and founded the company GTX together. Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) started in the company as a blue
collar worker and 30 years later, at the age of 60, is a top executive.
Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck)
is the boy wonder who has been with the business for over a dozen years
earning a salary over $160,000 over extending himself with a
mansion/house he can't afford, belongs to an expensive country club, has
a Porsche and sends his two kids to private school. He feels secure in
his job because he is good at it. His brother-in-law, Jack Dolan (Kevin Costner) owns a construction business.

On
a personal note I once said that Weight Watchers was my life and I was
asked by Gene, "What if there was no Weight Watchers?" and my attitude
towards the business and my life changed. In the movie Bobby and Phil
are fired while Gene is betrayed by James all in the name of business
and a possible merger offer. We follow them as their business is no
longer their life. The latter has no worries financially and the former
two are given reasonable severance packages. They attend placement
seminars and in a private evaluation, because of his age, Phil is told
to color his hair, to stop smoking ("Companies don't want to hire future
health problems") and redo his resume without specifically mentioning
Vietnam.
While the film revolves around Affleck and the consequences of living beyond your means in 2008 all the actors
give very strong performances and command the screen not competing but
supporting each other.
Rosemarie DeWitt, as Maggie Walker, Bobby's wife, is a strong woman with a head on her shoulders and Maria Bello,
as the woman who does the hatchet work at the corporation, along with
being Gene's mistress, are both equal matches to the men.
"The
Company Men" is an excellent film with strong performances and a look
at the business world, and the people in it, of today.