In Good Company

In Good Company is an example of a nice surprise out at the movies. Not replying on quirky characters, special effects or a rehashed genre, it's a movie sold from a trailer that shows nothing more than the simple possibility of a well told story. It shouldn't be something rare; but the film remains faithful to its trailer and avoids the all to regular sense of disappointment of the film being something completely different to what was expected.

There's no pretense about In Good Company, it's a feel-good drama with a good dose of comedy - it doesn't try to be anything it's not. The small negative against the film however is that since it's not trying to do anything original or quirky, it stays within the safe realm of not attempting anything substantially new. The basic story of the young hot shot coming in to take the place of the older, more experienced but now demoted colleague, can be played out many ways, but it remains the same essential story as the last time you saw it.

The story begins when Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) - who's been successful and secure in his job at advertising in a sports magazine for the last 20 years - learns that his company has been bought out by a global conglomerate. With fear flooding through the company's employees, Dan watches as up and coming manager Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) is transferred from the new company to oversee and revamp operations at an already successful workplace. Having proven successful in his last position, the extra responsibility to prove that he's up to this new role is a professional challenge for Carter, although he falls into his new position easier than Dan does, even in the face of his own personal life disintegrating. Generally annoyed that his new boss is young enough to be his son, the shift is a huge shake-up to Dan's professional life that soon translates to his personal life thanks to Carter's involvement with his daughter.

The way the story unfolds from this point on is clever and surprising. Dan and Carter are two good people, so there's little butting of heads going on just for the sake of the honour or to prove that either belong in their position, although it's not an easy professional relationship at first. It could have been a relationship that went only as deep as that, but it's given some additional complexity when Carter invites himself by default to dinner with Dan and his family. There's nothing fake or convoluted about the story. It flows with a consistency that keeps you glued to the story and interested in how this will leave two characters who are easy to connect with. Life is rarely ever easy, but these are two people doing the best they know how, and it's a good journey.

Grace and Quaid are a tag-team as the as the core of the film. Grace steps up to the plate in a great performance for a character that could so easily have been a smug smart-ass given his seeming silver-spooned professional life. But he delivers the required doses of humility and mix of confidence and self-doubt when needed to give his character good depth. From a respect-earning performance from Grace to a career death-avoiding one from Quaid. He's an accomplished actor, and his In Good Company role proves it. They won't be winning any Oscars, but that's due more to the simple fact that their characters aren't black, retarded, gender confused, simple, pregnant or disabled. Other than that they're worth the time to see.

In Good Company is one of the more pleasant times out at the cinema. A dramatic comedy that doesn't take the easy road out at the end. Despite the unusual path it chooses to finish on, it still manages to be more than satisfying, with that essential air of feel good. It shows that whatever challenges we may face, the strange and unforeseen are sometimes the most rewarding to overcome, or at least try to.


out of ten

Reviewed by Paul Boschen

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