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The company men — film review.

A sober, clear-eyed study of how corporate layoffs force men to reassess the meaning of success in their lives and with their families.

By Kirk Honeycutt

Kirk Honeycutt

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Writer-director John Wells , after a long career as a major force in television, brings the quiet muscle and energy of the small screen to the large one with this, his first feature as a director.

Naturally, Wells attracts top-flight talent, so this first-timer has Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones to head his cast. That ought to help out a film that could meet considerable boxoffice resistance. Those who have been laid off know all about this and those hanging on probably don’t want to hear about it

The Bottom Line "The Company Men" looks at corporate downsizing squarely in the face that is, the faces of startled men.

A distributor can expect only modest returns, although the film may show up in college courses in a decade or two when students study the calamitous recession of the early 21st century.

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No, its not the great Depression and this is not The Grapes of Wrath. This is about middle- and upper-class men and their families who bought into the American dream and the greed-is-good mentality only to have a corporate run pulled from under them.

Some react with denial such as hot-shot sales agent Bobby Walker (Affleck). He doesn’t even want to cancel his golf club membership. His boss, Gene McClary (Jones), reacts with rage over these layoffs behind his back only to get sharply rebuked by longtime friend and corporate head James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson): Its not his call.

A second wave of layoffs at this large manufacturing conglomerate sweeps Phil Woodward (Cooper) overboard. He is too old to land any job better than a school-crossing guard. His experience counts for nothing. Dying his hair isn’t going to help.

The ripple effect moves out to their families. Bobby’s wife Maggie (Rosemary DeWitt) is the levelheaded one, but she must manage not only the family’s dwindling finances but also her husband’s ugly mood swings. Her brother Jack (Costner) offers Bobby a job with his construction business but that falls drastically short of Bobby’s self-image.

Gene clearly sees the company he helped to build now focuses less on what it manufactures than keeping the share prices up. And he watches his old friend turn into a cowardly, self-interested owner/executive who has lost any feelings for his employees. With all the upheavals in everyone’s life, Gene even leaves his wife for, of all people, the conglomerate’s hit lady, Sally Wilcox (Maria Bello). Strange bedfellows.

Wells doesn’t let much sunshine into his doom-and-gloom scenario. That’s no doubt realistic but it does make the movie one long downer. What Wells strives to get across is that these layoffs force all his company men to take a hard look at themselves, their self images and their values. Few have spent much time with their families; in some cases, that may be by design.

In any event, they come to understand how they once measured success and achievement no longer works. Just how important is that Porsche anyway? How do earnings factor into family relationships? Wells offers neither easy answers nor saving solutions for his troubled men. He suggests improving one’s personal life may be a place to start the rebuilding, but it’s just a suggestion and clearly everyone is not up to the task

Again, the rookie film director benefits from contributions from first-class personnel. Cinematographer Roger Deakins mutes the colors but keeps everything crisp and clean. Production designer David Bomba contrasts the corporate boardrooms and offices with bleak corridors and reception areas where the unemployed camp out looking for work.

Wells also displays a fine visual acumen that nails a truth in a single shot: Rows of empty desks confront a befuddled executive and a job seeker sits down next to a long line of fellow job seekers a third his age.

Wells has made, for his first film, a tough movie and certainly not a commercial one. This displays the kind of guts he always brought to his television work, which one can only hope continues on in other future film projects.

Venue: Sundance Film Festival

Production companies: Spring Creek Prods., Battle Mountain Films Cast: Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Maria Bello, Rosemary DeWitt, Craig T. Nelson Director/screenwriter: John Wells Producers: Claire Rudnick Polstein, Paula Weinstein, John Wells Executive producer: Barbara A. Hall Director of photography: Roger Deakins Production designer: David Bomba Music: Aaron Zigman Costume designer: Lyn Paolo Editor: Rob Frazen Sales: CAA, IM Global No rating, 113 minutes

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Movie Review | 'The Company Men'

Perils of the Corporate Ladder: It Hurts When You Fall

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By Stephen Holden

• Dec. 9, 2010

“The Company Men” puts us down on the ground after having been up in the air. The movie powerfully revisits a theme touched on last year in the bitter comic drama “Up in the Air” : the devastating impact of sudden downsizing on corporate executives who have lived by the treacherous adage “You are what you do.” Instead of regarding these unfortunate men from the lofty perspective of a charming, cynical hatchet man logging frequent-flier miles — George Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air” — “The Company Men” looks them straight in the eye from inside the trenches.

Riding on the strong performances of Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper, portraying mid- to high-level employees at the fictional Boston company GTX, the movie is realistic enough to make all corporate climbers, but especially men over 50, quake in their boots. If you are what you do, what are you if you’re no longer doing it?

As depicted in the film the modern corporation is a sterile Darwinian shark tank in which the only thing that matters is the bottom line. The old days of corporate beneficence and loyalty to longtime employees are long gone.

The film is the first feature written and directed by John Wells , an executive producer and show runner for “ER.” If it has the compactness and structure of a high-end television drama, there are signs that it was severely edited. A tantalizing subplot about one character’s extramarital affair with a fellow executive has been all but abandoned. We meet the families of the three male principals, but only one wife and one child emerge as more than background figures.

Some of the details are wrong. Even with an annual salary of $160,000, Mr. Affleck’s character, the 37-year-old Bobby Walker, could never have afforded the suburban mansion in which he lives with his wife, Maggie (a spunky Rosemarie DeWitt), and two children. A 12-year veteran of GTX, Bobby is suddenly fired, not for incompetence but to cut costs on the eve of a probable merger.

Yet the minor miscalculations pale beside the film’s unflinching depiction of the perils of heedless upward mobility that, for all the luxuries it affords, looks pretty grim. I remember reading about the lavish but regimented lives of Lehman Brothers’ upper echelon and thinking that this must be hell.

If Bobby is too cocky for his own good, and Mr. Jones’s character, Gene McClary, too honest, there is no question about their fundamental integrity and steady job performances. What matters at GTX is not the quality of work but keeping the stock price afloat, partly to justify the $22 million salary of a chief executive who views the thousands of ruined lives of former employees as worth the short-term uptick.

This cold, flinty-eyed chief executive, James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson), is the film’s closest thing to a villain. He has also been Gene’s best friend since they founded the business. The film’s ugliest message is that friendship nowadays means nothing in the workplace if it impedes profit. That Gene is a man of conscience who vociferously argues against downsizing makes his severance all the more coldblooded.

The movie crisscrosses among Bobby, Gene and Phil Woodward (Mr. Cooper), a 30-year employee and friend of Gene’s who is pushing 60 after having worked his way up from the factory floor to an executive suite. Phil is advised to dye his gray hair and to tweak his résumé to omit any work reference before 1990. Mr. Cooper gives a great, tragic performance of a man who lashes out like a trapped snake when he realizes that, in his words, “my life ended, and nobody noticed.”

Bobby has to give up his Porsche and his golf club membership, sell his house and move his family into his parents’ home. He eventually takes work in the small, struggling construction business run by his brother-in-law Jack Dolan (Kevin Costner). He also attends humiliating outplacement seminars at which the unemployed are instructed to recite slogans like “I will win” and “Faith, courage, enthusiasm.”

With its acutely observant eye for class differences and chilly corporate manners “The Company Men” has two moral grounding wires. Jack, who hires Bobby despite Bobby’s dislike of him and his sloppy carpentry, does the honorable family thing. The movie risks sentimentality by arguing that the satisfaction of building things with your hands might be more rewarding than earning a pile by deal making and paper pushing. But Mr. Costner’s grumpy, taciturn Jack keeps the movie’s bleeding-heart tendencies in check.

In a movie that’s carefully structured to balance the anguish with some hope, the main voice of decency and humanity belongs to Gene. Visiting the empty dockyard where the business began as a shipbuilding operation, he muses eloquently about the days when people made things they took satisfaction in creating. With his sad, crinkled eyes in a craggy face whose expression runs from sorrowful to bitter, Gene embodies the rugged can-do American spirit near the end of its tether but still undefeated.

“The Company Men” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It contains considerable profanity.

THE COMPANY MEN

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Written and directed by John Wells; director of photography, Roger Deakins; edited by Robert Frazen; produced by Mr. Wells, Claire Rudnick Polstein and Paula Weinstein; released by the Weinstein Company. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes.

WITH: Tommy Lee Jones (Gene McClary), Ben Affleck (Bobby Walker), Chris Cooper (Phil Woodward), Maria Bello (Sally Wilcox), Rosemarie DeWitt (Maggie Walker), Kevin Costner (Jack Dolan), Craig T. Nelson (James Salinger) and Eamonn Walker (Danny Mills).

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The Company Men

Ben affleck, tommy lee jones, and chris cooper as well-off white guys who get nipped by the financial crisis..

Two years into the global financial crisis, it’s time we started thinking about the other guys. The well-off, comfortably oblivious guys, men who might not have been directly responsible for the ruinous market bubble but who certainly enjoyed a long run of benefiting from it before their jobs and lives began to crumble beneath them. The Company Men (The Weinstein Co.), the feature film debut of ER creator John Wells, is a thoughtful, tasteful, and timely tribute to a few such men. If only the results weren’t so respectably dull.

The Company Men establishes its three main storylines with impressive swiftness: Minutes into the movie’s opening sequence, we know all we need to about Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck), Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), and Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper). All three men work for a company called GTX, a Boston shipbuilding concern that’s rapidly morphing into a huge transportation conglomerate, a place that, rather than manufacturing a product, churns out profit for its shareholders. Recession-induced downsizing has already cost Bobby his job, and the two older men’s positions are in imminent jeopardy. Gene stands a chance of hanging on to his spot as vice president of the company—after all, he’s having an extramarital affair with the H.R. executive in charge of downsizing (Maria Bello). But Phil, an old-school company man used to steak-and-martini work lunches, completely loses his bearings when he’s thrown into the world of résumé-jiggering and corporate self-help seminars.

Bobby’s stay-at-home wife, the pragmatic Maggie (a dryly funny Rosemarie DeWitt), has trouble impressing on him the repercussions of what’s happened: Not only will he have to give up golfing and buying expensive gadgets for the kids; they may have to sell their nice suburban house. Bobby chafes at every indignity of unemployment—most of all the affirmations he’s encouraged to repeat at those self-help seminars—but he’s finally forced to swallow his pride and ask his working-class brother-in-law Jack (Kevin Costner) for a job putting up drywall with Jack’s contracting business.

Here’s the place where I guess I’m supposed to poke fun at Kevin Costner—but damned if (along with DeWitt) he isn’t one of the best things in the movie, even if his Boston accent sounds a bit raw. Yes, the character of the salt-of-the-earth working man is a sentimentalized type, but Costner doesn’t play it for nobility; his Jack Dolan is a fundamentally decent fellow but no saint. Jack regards his successful and occasionally condescending brother-in-law with wry irony. When Bobby, after some initial resistance, begins to extol the spiritual satisfactions of manual labor, Jack gently reminds him that his carpentry skills aren’t all that.

Maybe the reason this solidly acted, handsome-looking movie never takes flight is because of the casting of Ben Affleck as the central character. Affleck is the Dockers of actors: serviceable, preppy, bland. He seems to occupy a separate acting planet from Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper, men whose deep-set eyes and worn faces suggest a lifetime of back story before they even say a word. But though Jones and Cooper are, as always, satisfying to watch, the older executives at GTX never really come alive either. Their character arcs are too stiffly scripted; especially in the case of the Cooper character, we foresee every story beat one scene before it comes.

The Company Men has a dramatically muffled quality that’s probably intentional. Successful white American men have never been a group renowned for their emotional openness. Indeed, much of the movie’s action revolves around these men’s entrenched resistance to personal or professional change. Not once but twice, Tommy Lee Jones’ V.P. takes another character on a nostalgic walk through the abandoned shipyard, remembering how, “We used to build something here.” It’s a sentiment that anyone who’s lived through the boom-and-bust cycle of the last few decades has at one time or another felt in their bones. But the venerated American export that The Company Men most recalls isn’t seagoing vessels—it’s hourlong dramatic television shows.

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The Company Men Reviews

Wells explores themes relevant to everyone in America. No one will come out of the film without thinking of someone they know who’s been impacted in the same way as the characters onscreen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 3, 2023

Ben Affleck performs ably for the second time in a year.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 5, 2020

I would recommend this one. It rang true to me and it gave me some food for thought about the best way to move forward in this economically tough time.

Full Review | Apr 2, 2020

Much of The Company Men feels a little too pat and tidy: white collar bad, blue collar good.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2020

...it's in the performances that The Company Men manages to succeed...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 20, 2019

Like its sleeker counterpart, Up in the Air, The Company Men was born during the worst recession since the Great Depression. It's the sign of the times and carries much relevancy.

Full Review | Feb 16, 2019

The Company Men is well made, but it seems to resort to shorthand to cover all that it wants to address -- a little less scope and a little more depth might have served it better.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 16, 2019

With harrowing realism, The Company Men captures the raw, personal impact of the economic meltdown.

Full Review | Feb 7, 2018

It's tough to feel torn up about Ben Affleck having to sell his Porsche when most of us are hustling to make rent at the end of every month.

Full Review | May 12, 2015

The Company Men, aka "The Supposed Problems of Unsympathetic Rich People" or "Good Actors Stuck in a Mediocre Movie," tries to be timely, but it's as out of touch as Pat Buchanan.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 15, 2013

Amazing acting backed up by an authentic and emotionally engaging story makes The Company Men one of the best films of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 11, 2013

Despite some of its one-dimensional characters, this drama captures the sacrifices that people make during periods of unemployment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 30, 2013

A bit heavy on the cliches, but this sermon will connect with anyone for whom "the new reality" of today's economy hits close to home

Full Review | Jan 17, 2013

It may not be the "feel good movie of the year," but it is a fascinating look at a very prominent and ongoing situation.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 21, 2012

There are some witty observations, but these, along with the use of natural light, have the effect of bringing a bad situation into starker perspective.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2011

The points made are good ones, even if you wish they could work them in a more subtle way. At the very least, it's a hopeful take on a troubling issue, with a genuine belief in old-fashioned Americana values as the key to survival.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 7, 2011

has a stinging sense of immediacy and a strong sense of narrative momentum that keeps the multiple stories in balance, as well as judiciously managing sympathy for characters who are usually seen as villains during economic hard times

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 15, 2011

Excellent performances and a fine use of detail counterbalance a somewhat weak storyline.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 1, 2011

...well-executed programmatic melodrama, and there are some scenes that evince real heart, probably because the actors seem naively committed to the project.

Full Review | Original Score: 84/100 | May 15, 2011

As an actor's showcase, you're definitely in good company.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 5, 2011

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The company men.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 2 Reviews
• Kids Say 2 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Thoughtful, heavy drama about the downsized.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this timely and topical drama -- which focuses on three executives who are forced to reexamine their values after losing their jobs -- is likely to be much more relatable for adults than for teens. There's also some mature content, including brief nudity, a lot of swearing ("s--t," "f--k,"…

Why Age 16+?

Frequent language includes "s--t," "d--k," "f--k," and "motherf--ker."

A woman is briefly shown topless after getting out of bed; her naked back is als

Many consumer brands are mentioned or appear on screen, including a Porsche and

Some social drinking. Several scenes take place in bars as disheartened, unemplo

One man, dispirited and depressed, throws rocks at his former office building.

Any Positive Content?

The movie makes the point that many people define themselves by their work and b

Some of the executives are notable for their loyalty to their employees, going o

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A woman is briefly shown topless after getting out of bed; her naked back is also seen, as are shots of her putting on a bra. Couples are sometimes shown talking in bed, before or after having sex.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Many consumer brands are mentioned or appear on screen, including a Porsche and Titleist golf clubs. One of the film's key themes is the accumulation of expensive consumer products, and some scenes feature people talking about expensive purchases and planning shopping trips.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Some social drinking. Several scenes take place in bars as disheartened, unemployed people drown their frustrations and are sometimes shown quite drunk. One character smokes occasionally.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The movie makes the point that many people define themselves by their work and by the stuff they buy with the money they earn at work -- and, in doing so, sometimes neglect more important things, including family and loyalty. The characters in this film learn a new set of values after being stripped of the jobs that are, initially, the core of their identities.

Positive Role Models

Some of the executives are notable for their loyalty to their employees, going out of their way to protect jobs and take care of their longtime colleagues. Others are smarmy corporate suits who are happy to take home a fat paycheck while laying off thousands of people in an attempt to boost the company's stock price. While it's clear that loyalty is to be valued, those who lack it still get rich. It's just business.

Parents need to know that this timely and topical drama -- which focuses on three executives who are forced to reexamine their values after losing their jobs -- is likely to be much more relatable for adults than for teens. There's also some mature content, including brief nudity, a lot of swearing ("s--t," "f--k," and more), and a good deal of drinking (including characters drinking to drown their sorrows). On the up side, characters who are initially invested in the material comforts of an increasingly upscale life learn that loyalty to friends and family is more important than pride. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

a good drama, loved it.

What's the story.

After putting distance between himself and his unglamorous, modest childhood by building a privileged life in a leafy suburb funded by a six-figure sales job at a multinational corporation, Bobby Walker ( Ben Affleck ) finds himself downsized. He's sure he'll find a replacement soon, an optimism that his more realistic wife ( Rosemarie DeWitt ) doesn't share. His former colleague, Phil Woodward ( Chris Cooper ), worries that he's next, while their boss, Gene McClary ( Tommy Lee Jones ), feels increasingly bereft by the failing economy and the layoffs that are destroying the company that he and his college roommate, now-CEO James Salinger ( Craig T. Nelson ), envisioned. None of them can predict the cost that all these changes will ultimately exact.

Is It Any Good?

A deeply empathetic film about men and women left unmoored after losing their jobs, it hits the right note. Hollywood sometimes glosses over the true impact of real-life struggles in the service of entertainment; THE COMPANY MEN, thankfully, does not. It tells a story that -- though nearly too tragic yet very familiar -- still needs to be told. Watching it is a sobering experience (and, it has to be said, pretty depressing).

Everyone in the cast plays it right, striking a strong balance between maudlin and true. Affleck begins the movie with a strut and ends it humbled but still standing, and Jones manages to stay sympathetic despite playing a character who, for the most part, is financially untouched by the winds of change. But it's Cooper who's most troubling, standing in for those who are truly devastated. The film may have its inadequacies -- a grating obviousness, for one -- but it's a triumph, nevertheless, for a movie about defeated times.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how movies (and other media) reflect the state of society. Should movies offer escapist entertainment, or do they have a duty to address real-life problems?

How do the characters change over the course of the movie? What do they learn? How does the way they identify themselves shift?

Do you think businesses owe loyalty to their employees or their shareholders? Are layoffs just part of business?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 21, 2011
• On DVD or streaming : June 7, 2011
• Cast : Ben Affleck , Chris Cooper , Tommy Lee Jones
• Director : John Wells
• Studio : Weinstein Co.
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 113 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language and brief nudity
• Last updated : March 24, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Up in the Air

Jerry Maguire

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Drama movies that tug at the heartstrings, drama tv for teens.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

In the Company of Men

Now here is true evil: Cold, unblinking, reptilian. The character Chad in “In the Company of Men” makes the terrorists of the summer thrillers look like boys throwing mud-pies. And for every Chad there is a Howard, a weaker man, ready to go along, lacking the courage to disagree and half intoxicated by the stronger will of the other man. People like this are not so uncommon. Look around you.

The movie takes place in the familiar habitats of the modern corporate male: Hotel corridors, airport “courtesy lounges,” corporate cubicles. The men’s room is an invaluable refuge for private conversations. We never find out what the corporation makes, but what does it matter? Modern business administration techniques have made the corporate environment so interchangeable that an executive from Pepsi, say, can transfer seamlessly to Apple and apply the same “management philosophy” without missing a beat.

Chad ( Aaron Eckhart ) and Howard ( Matt Malloy ) have been assigned for six weeks to a regional office of their company. Waiting for their flight, they talk. Chad is unhappy and angry because he’s been dumped by his girlfriend (“The whole fade-out thing”). He proposes a plan: “Say we were to find some girl vulnerable as hell … ” In their new location, they’ll select a young woman who doesn’t look like she has much of a social life. They’ll both shower her with attention–flowers, dinner dates–until she’s dizzy, and then, “out comes the rug, both of us dropping her!” Chad explains this plan with the blinkered, formal language of a man whose recreational reading consists of best-selling primers on excellence and wealth. “Life is for the taking–is it not?” he asks. And, “Is that not ideal? To restore a little dignity to our lives?” He hammers his plan home in the airport men’s room, while Howard, invisible behind a cubicle door, says he guesses he agrees.

The “girl” they choose for their target turns out to be deaf–a bonus. Her name is Christine ( Stacy Edwards ). She is pleasant, pretty, articulate; it is easy to understand everything she says, but Chad is cruel as he describes her to Howard: “She’s got one of those voices like Flipper. You should hear her going at it, working to put the simplest sounds together.” Howard makes a specialty of verbal brutality. Christine is not overwhelmed to be dating two men at once, but she finds it pleasant, and eventually she begins to really like Chad.

“In the Company of Men,” directed by Neil LaBute, is a continuing series of revelations, because it isn’t simply about this sick joke. Indeed, if the movie were only about what Chad and Howard do to Christine and how she reacts, it would be too easy, a one-note attack on these men as sadistic predators. The movie deals with much more and it cuts deeper, and by the end we see it’s about a whole system of values in which men as well as women are victims, and monstrous selfishness is held up as the greatest good.

Environments like the one in this film are poisonous, and many people have to try to survive in them. Men like Chad and Howard are dying inside. Personal advancement is the only meaningful goal. Women and minorities are seen by white males as unfairly advantaged. White males are seen as unfairly advantaged by everyone else.

There is an incredibly painful scene in “In the Company of Men” where Howard tells a young black trainee, “they asked me to recommend someone for the management training program,” and then requires the man to humiliate himself in order to show that he qualifies. At first you see the scene as racist. Then you realize Howard and the trainee are both victims of the corporate culture they occupy, in which the power struggle is the only reality. Something forces both of them to stay in the room during that ugly scene–job insecurity.

On a more human level, the story becomes poignant. Both Howard and Chad date Christine. There is an unexpected emotional development. I will not reveal too much. We arrive at the point where we thought the story was leading us, and it keeps on going. There is another chapter. We find a level beneath the other levels. The game was more Machiavellian than we imagined. We thought we were witnessing evil, but now we look on its true face.

What is remarkable is how realistic the story is. We see a character who is depraved, selfish and evil, and he is not a bizarre eccentric, but a product of the system. It is not uncommon to know personally of behavior not unlike Chad’s. Most of us, of course, are a little more like Howard, but that is small consolation. “Can’t you see?” Howard says. “I’m the good guy!” In other words, I am not as bad as the bad guy, although I am certainly weaker.

Christine survives, because she knows who she is. She is deaf, but less disabled than Howard and Chad, because she can hear on frequencies that their minds and imaginations do not experience. “In the Company of Men” is the kind of bold, uncompromising film that insists on being thought about afterward–talked about, argued about, hated if necessary, but not ignored. “How do you feel right now, deep down inside?” one of the characters asks. The movie asks us the same question.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Mark Rector as John
• Aaron Eckhart as Chad
• Stacy Edwards as Christine
• Matt Malloy as Howard

Written and Directed by

• Neil Labute

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THE COMPANY MEN

"mixed blessings".

What You Need To Know:

(RoRo, C, B, Cap, LLL, V, S, NN, AA, D, M) Strong Romantic worldview with light Christian element due to main character’s turning to faith in a general God via an unemployment support group, plus marriage is ultimately portrayed in positive light and the movie is generally pro-capitalist though it criticizes very high salaries for CEOs; frequent foul language includes at least 45 obscenities (including numerous “f” words) and several uses of GD; implied suicide as one jobless, depressed major character is seen getting into his car in a closed garage and starting the engine, cutting away to his funeral; implied and discussed adultery of a major secondary character, shown discreetly as he is in a hotel room before and after sex, but no depiction; brief flash of upper female nudity as man’s mistress gets dressed; male leads drink throughout, mostly due to stress, though one character drinks heavily into depression; and, married couple shown arguing strongly due to stress, but they always make peace and marriage overall is portrayed in a strong, positive, loving fashion, and man attempts vandalism while drunk by throwing rocks at the business that laid him off, but no damage occurs.

More Detail:

An almost relentlessly downbeat drama about corporate layoffs affecting a group of middle-aged and older men in the Boston shipbuilding industry, COMPANY MEN offers potent performances from an ace cast of top veteran actors in the service of a boring script that compounds its problems with a falsely hopeful ending that seems to come from nowhere.

Bobby Walker (played by Ben Affleck) is a suburban shipbuilding executive making over $150,000, with a loving wife and a somewhat distant teenage stepson, who finds his world shaken when he’s laid off amid mass corporate downsizing. Soon, he finds that his friends and mentors (played by Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones, plus lesser-knowns) are also being cut. The movie follows their attempts over a year to adjust amid a crippling labor market with age standing against them.

COMPANY MEN slowly and subtly details the ways in which Bobby’s life unravels, following him and his family as they give up their house, car and even the stepson’s Xbox. Yet, it tries to provide uplift and positive family values as Bobby’s brother-in-law Jack (played by Kevin Costner) gives him a chance to try blue-collar work as a home builder, leading Bobby to become less self-absorbed and enjoy life on a more basic, yet deeper level.

Other characters don’t fare as well, with one man carrying on an affair and another committing suicide. Even so, the movie commendably portrays these kinds of actions in an unfavorable manner. [SPOILER ALERTS] It also shows that Bobby finds strength by attending an unemployed support group that encourages its members to have faith in a general God and chanting about faith powering them through the hardships in life. Ultimately, Tommy Lee’s character saves the day by improbably spending his personal lay-off windfall to start a new ship building company and giving all his friends good jobs in the new venture, but this plot point comes out of nowhere and rings false.

Overall, COMPANY MEN is a depressing movie that’s only redeemed quality-wise by its actors and by some positive elements extolling family and a general belief in God. Ultimately, it’s also pro-capitalist, though it criticizes giving very high salaries to CEOs, especially when many other employees are getting laid off. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for the movie’s strong foul language and mature themes.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Company Men

• The story centers on a year in the life of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company - and how that affects them, their families, and their communities.
• When the GTX Corporation must cut jobs to improve the company's balance sheet during the 2010 recession, thousands of employees will take the hit, like Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck). Bobby learns the real life consequences of not having a job. Not only does he see a change to his family lifestyle, and the loss of his home, but also his feelings of self-worth. — Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
• An ensemble drama that addresses the effects of downsizing on the upper class American family. For high flying Bobby Walker, his lucrative job at GTX has given him the American Dream: a big house in the suburbs, a silver Porsche in his garage and a beautiful family. But when Bobby is one of the thousands laid off by his company in the wake of an ongoing recession, Bobby must join the lines of the unemployed, but also deal with the effects it has on he and his family. Among the others laid off is Phil Woodward, an executive who rose from the factory floor to the corporate offices, but is now finding himself competing with men half his age as he reenters the job market. Meanwhile, Gene McClary is the number two executive at GTX and the vocal opposition to the layoffs, as he witnesses them happening to his friends and colleagues. — robgordon
• GTX is a conglomerate based in Boston. In difficult economic times including what some may see as mismanagement by those in power, the company has to restructure leading to several rounds of firings, while those let go may or may not know that the company founder and CEO James Salinger is still going ahead with the plan to build a new headquarters building which would include his lavish new office. The stories of three of those fired are told, each in executive positions earning six figures, each in different levels of the executive, and each at a different stage of their life and thus career. In a changing job market than when they started working for GTX, they may have to reinvent themselves to get another job, which they may not be willing or able to do, especially if that reinvention does not afford them the lifestyle to which working for GTX has made them accustomed. Those who were fired in a later round of restructuring and thus who saw what happened to some of their colleagues let go in earlier rounds, may have a different perspective of their post GTX life. — Huggo
• A young executive at a shipping and manufacturing conglomerate, Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is on the fast track to the top. He is a rising star at work and has all the material trappings of success. Then his company goes through a few rounds of layoffs, so Bobby and colleagues Phil (Chris Cooper) and Gene (Tommy Lee Jones) find themselves on the unemployment line. As the year unfolds, all three must redefine their lives as they struggle to survive in a hostile post-career landscape. — tpsimpleman
• The movie opens with Bobby arriving at work, bragging to coworkers about his golf round that morning. An onscreen news feed tells us the date is September 15, 2008. Bobby is a sales manager in ship manufacturing at GTX, a large firm in Massachusetts with multiple businesses. Shortly after arriving to work this day Bobby is fired as part of a round of corporate downsizing. His boss Phil is avoiding his own office, afraid he might also be called upstairs to get canned. Cut to a meeting involving Phil's boss, Gene, the executive over Phil and Bobby's whole division. Gene is part of a panel from the company giving answers to financial analysts about GTX's financial projections. Gene is honest in sharing his thoughts, refusing to paint a rosy picture, much to the chagrin of the other panelists. When Gene gets back to his office Phil is waiting and informs him of the layoffs. Gene was unaware the company was closing major sections of his division and firing people. Gene then interrupts the CEO, Jim, in the middle of a meeting to complain about these actions taking place without his consent or knowledge. Jim explains it was necessary but Gene does not seem placated, just resigned to the facts. A short time later Jim comes to Gene's office and briefly reminisces about old times, giving the strong impression that they have been friends for a really long time. Jim then tells Gene, nicely but firmly, that he cannot openly challenge Jim's authority in front of the other executives. There is an unspoken threat in the way Jim delivers this message to Gene. Interspersed with all the above scenes and throughout the movie are short scenes in their homes that indicate that Bobby, Phil and Gene all have very expensive homes and lavish lifestyles. We also learn that Gene's marriage is strained and he is having an affair with Sally in HR at GTX. Bobby then goes to a party at his brother-in-law Jack's home, where Jack openly needles Bobby about his corporate job. Based on their interactions it is clear they dislike each other. Next we see Bobby at the placement firm that GTX has hired to help its workers with their transition to other jobs. Bobby is openly disdainful of the process and is rude to Danny, an engineer from another company who is also in transition. Next we see Gene meet Bobby for lunch, offering to call in favors to help him land a job. Again Bobby is rude, rejecting Gene's offer because he is confident he will find employment soon. Next we see Bobby and his wife Maggie, Jack's sister, discussing their increasingly precarious financial situation. It is clear from the discussion that Bobby is in denial of how dire their circumstances really are. Exact time lines are never given but as scenes progress we are given indicators that months are passing by without progress on the job front for Bobby. He goes to an interview he thought was for a local sales job and discovers it was actually for a job in Arkansas and pays less than half his previous salary. Bobby is very rude to the interviewer and storms out cursing. During a variety of scenes we see that Bobby is becoming disillusioned with his job prospects and that Gene is becoming disillusioned with his old friend Jim and the way the company is being run. During a holiday dinner with extended family it is inadvertently revealed by Bobby's daughter that he lost his job, a fact which he and Maggie had been hiding. Jack discreetly offers Bobby a construction job with his company "if things get tough" but again Bobby is rude and rejects Jack's offer. Bobby continues to spend and act like things are OK but we can see his confidence eroding as months pass. Eventually, after he doesn't get a job he thought he had been offered, he shows signs of acceptance as he sells his Porsche and their home is for sale. Next we see Phil coming to Gene to complain that Sally had just fired him. When Gene goes to try and make Sally hire him back she informs him that he, too, has been fired. Gene leaves his wife and moves in with Sally. Phil is very distressed about his job loss, knowing this his prospects as an older executive competing in a very youth-oriented market are very slim. He eventually reveals to Gene that his wife makes him leave everyday with his briefcase so the neighbors won't know. Bobby, after initially rejecting Maggie's idea to move back into his parent's extra rooms, concedes to the necessity of the situation so they move. Bobby also goes to Jack asking him for a job. Jack accepts Bobby and puts him to work with him on a remodeling job, even though Bobby is inept at almost everything. Bobby gradually gets better at the job but is still very slow. When one of the construction crewmen is arrested for drunkenness and drug use, Bobby convinces Jack to hire Danny, the engineer from the placement firm. It is eventually revealed by another crew member, a close friend of Jack's, that Jack is potentially losing money on the job and only bid on it so he could keep his crew working through the winter. This seems to give Bobby a much greater appreciation of his brother-in-law. We see vignettes of Phil and Bobby going on interviews and getting rejected, repeatedly dashing their hopes. Finally Phil asks for a meeting with an old buddy, begging him for a sales job in his friend's firm. His friend reluctantly informs Phil he can't recommend him for the job. After this rejection Phil commits suicide. After Phil's funeral Gene takes Bobby for a walk at a closed manufacturing facility on the docks and tells him stories of the early days of the company, when he was proud of the manufacturing work he did and so were his fellow workers, before the corporate greed mindset took over. Next we see Gene confronting Jim to chastise him for continuing to take even larger salaries and bonuses as the people that actually do their work lose their jobs, homes and self-respect. Jim makes it clear his conscience is not bothered and walks away from his old friend. Different scenes show that Bobby is reconnecting in a good way with his wife and kids as a result of their situation. When Gene offers Bobby a job with his new manufacturing company he's decided to launch, Bobby tells Jack he's not sure if he should take it due to the corporate pressures he knows he will face. Jack tells him "You should take that job. You're a shitty carpenter." It is obvious they have a better level of respect and appreciation for one another now. In the final scene we Bobby taking charge and giving assignments in a room full of his previously laid-off friends and co-workers in an office in one of the old factories where Gene, Jim and Phil all started out together.

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The Company Men

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

A small movie, yes, but one with a large, achingly humane theme: the effect of corporate downsizing on the soul as well as the wallet. At first, you may not give a crap about what happens to white guys in suits who lose their jobs at GTX, a Boston manufacturing company. There’s a stench of arrogance around Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck in top form), what with the chichi house, wife (Rosemarie DeWitt), kids, Porsche and golf-club membership. When he loses his position and privileges, Bobby has to beg jobs from his wife’s blue-collar brother, Jack (a terrific Kevin Costner), a building contractor who works with his hands, not a spreadsheet. At a motivational center, Bobby runs into Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), an older guy freshly dumped by GTX and advised to dye his hair and take anything off his résumé that suggests he had a career before 1990. The company CEO, James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson), isn’t losing sleep from cutting staff. The only compassion comes from number-two man Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones). Writer John Wells, in an impressive feature directing debut, tosses a lot of balls in the air that he can’t always keep airborne. And his TV roots on ER and The West Wing result in softening edges that are better left unsandpapered. But Wells is a wonder with actors — Cooper and Jones earn top honors — and a filmmaker with an instinct for the emotions that bleed between the lines. This haunting movie hits you hard and right where you live.

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The Company Men (2010)

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The Company Men

In his feature film directorial debut, John Wells paints a heroic and honest portrait of where our culture is today. The force behind such celebrated shows as ER, THhe West Wing, Southland and the upcoming Showtime series Shameless, Wells brings his signature combination of nuanced character work and uncompromising drama to this story of a group of co-workers who must rebuild their lives after corporate downsizing. Ben Affleck plays Bobby Walker, a golf-playing marketing and sales exec whose sense of self crumbles when he loses his job. Company founder Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to fight the good fight against the layoffs, only to discover that he has made himself a target. And older worker Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) gives in to blind fury as he waits for the inevitable. With an extraordinary ensemble cast including Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, and inspired cinematography by Roger Deakins, The Company Men offers a resonant examination of the human spirit that asks us if we truly know what matters most in life. The Company Men debuted at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

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The Company Men Review

A solid film with strong performances that deals with a very timely subject, unemployment. The film boasts good performances by its cast, which include Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones and Rosemary DeWitt.

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The Company Men Movie

In America, We Give Our Lives To Our Jobs. It's Time To Take Them Back.

Who's Involved:

Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson, John Wells, Paula Weinstein, Claire Polstein, Matt Lane, Barbara A. Hall, Jason Berk

Release Date:

Friday, January 21, 2011 Limited

Plot: What's the story about?

The story centers on a year in the life of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major company - and how that affects them, their families, and their communities.

3.75 / 5 stars ( 20 users)

Poll: Will you see The Company Men?

Who stars in The Company Men: Cast List

Kevin Costner

Horizon, Horizon: An American Saga  

Tommy Lee Jones

The Burial, Men in Black III  

Ben Affleck

The Accountant 2, Untitled Whitey Bulger Project  

Maria Bello

Better Start Swimming, Prisoners  

Chris Cooper

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Town  

Craig T. Nelson

The Incredibles 2, The Proposal  

Rosemarie DeWitt

Smile 2, The Watch  

Who's making The Company Men: Crew List

A look at the The Company Men behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director John Wells last directed August: Osage County and Burnt .

Screenwriter

Production Company

Company Men Productions

Watch The Company Men Trailers & Videos

Theatrical Teaser

Production: what we know about the company men, filming timeline.

• 2010 - March : The film was set to Completed  status.
• 2009 - March : The film was set to Pre-Production  status.

The Company Men Release Date: When was the film released?

The Company Men was a Limited release in 2011 on Friday, January 21, 2011 in around 106 theaters. There were 5 other movies released on the same date, including No Strings Attached , The Way Back and Dhobi Ghat . As a Limited release, The Company Men will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the film is playing in your area.

The Company Men DVD & Blu-ray Release Date: When was the film released?

The Company Men was released on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday, June 7 , 2011 .

Q&A Asked about The Company Men

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• Sun., Mar. 27, 2011 from Amazon
• added the US Blu-ray release date of June 7, 2011
• added the US DVD release date of June 7, 2011
• Thu., Jan. 20, 2011 from Yahoo! Movies
• added photos to the gallery
• Sat., Jan. 15, 2011 from YouTube
• added Video Clip: 'Diet Coke' to trailers & videos
• added Video Clip: 'Ethical Scrutiny' to trailers & videos
• added Video Clip: 'Honest Wage' to trailers & videos
• added Video Clip: 'You Have Me' to trailers & videos
• Sat., Dec. 4, 2010 from Deadline
• added the tagline: "In America, We Give Our Lives To Our Jobs. It's Time To Take Them Back."

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