The Company Men Movie Download

7 / 10

IT’S A BUSINESS NOT A CHARITY
Ben Affleck has been downsized from his company. His division was shipbuilding which is one of the last industries to recover from a recession. Ben tells his wife who goes immediately into the downsize frugal mode. Affleck is in denial and doesn’t want to do anything to change their life, i.e. maintain the $600 a month eating out and dry cleaning bill.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Affleck’s former boss. He was “out of the loop” when Affleck got laid off. He feels bad about it, but like everyone else at the company they fear more for their own job than give sympathy. The movie smartly shifts back and forth juxtaposing Tommy Lee’s life drinking unblended scotch, and Affleck trying to get a job while telling no one he is unemployed. He breaks all the rules in the book by not networking with friends.

Affleck’s former company is wanting to lay more people off in order to increase the stock price. They are worried about a takeover all the while they are building a new office building in downtown Boston. Affleck is not doing well with anger management at his job interviews as job offers require relocation and his salary reduced to that of my own…I almost feel bad for the guy who may have to sell his Porsche. Affleck is finding out a lot of people lost their job and those looking for jobs are more qualified than him. He is also too proud to ask his blue collar family for help. Tommy Lee is having an affair with a woman at work, Sally Wilcox (Maria Bello) who provides us with some gratuitous down sized brief nudity.

I really have no pity for Affleck. He has 12 weeks pay and he could have been working during that time for his BIL. His Massachusetts unemployment benefits (which is never mentioned) is more than what most of my neighbors make. He didn’t downsize his life in a timely manner. Good acting, but there were no real New England accents in the whole group.

The ending was unrealistic, but hey, it’s a movie.Read More