THE COMPANY MEN

THE COMPANY MEN was written and directed (as well as produced) by John Wells, whom I knew in my Hollywood years as a very nice, unassuming man. He produced a play I was in when I first arrived out there, and later he wrote and produced TV shows (starting with CHINA BEACH though hits like THE WEST WING and  the one he had the most responsibility for: ER), some of which I auditioned for episodes of and never got, though he always treated me with respect and courtesy.

Even though we both knew I had acted out during the play when we were both starting out, because of an issue with my then second wife. He didn't fire me that time, but I'm sure he made a mental note to not hire me again. Despite that pure speculation, I like the man and what he creates.

But this is his first time writing/directing and producing a movie.

THE COMPANY MEN is kind of a coda, or PS to UP IN THE AIR. That is, it's a continuation of the story of the impact of corporate downsizing. In UP IN THE AIR it was mostly about those who did the downsizing, and the filmmakers (mostly Jason Reitman) produced what I consider to be a terrific work of art.

THE COMPANY OF MEN is mostly about those downsized, and though the characters are solidly written and beautifully acted, they are at the higher end of the corporate food chain and thus, from my perspective, more difficult to identify with. Affleck's character is the one we are meant to identify most with and he does a great job, especially aided by Rosemarie DeWitt playing his wife and Kevin Costner in an almost thankless role of his brother-in-law (Costner has been doing really fascinating work as an actor since relinquishing his leading man status, this role alone was worth watching the movie for).

But Affleck is terrifically supported by the entire cast, including Tommy Lee Jones, always at the top of his game no matter the venue, and ditto for Chris Cooper who has one of the most difficult portrayals in the film and pulls it off with his usual intensity. The big surprise for me is Craig T. Nelson, who I knew casually in Hollywood and liked, but discovered here a new dimension to his acting chops, which has to be credited to Wells' directing.

So Wells did a great job casting and directing, and as a once movie actor I appreciate that totally. As for his writing, in THE COMPANY MEN, it's good, though a little obvious, with the weak point being that he's viewing the recent economic troubles through the lives of those, like I said, on the higher end of the food chain, making them seem almost more vulnerable than those at the lower end.

Maybe that's just the result of Wells having been at the higher end for most of his career and seeing the vulnerabilities and precariousness, even there, more clearly, writing about what he knows best. And the writing is, for the most part, really well done. Despite the inevitability of some of his characters' choices and outcomes, there's a lot of subtlety to the individual scenes. The cinematography seems a bit washed out, which may just be a result of shooting it digitally (I don't know if that's right or not) and/or may be intentional to give the feel of lives being reduced to less than they were etc.

But in terms of my comparison to UP IN THE AIR for instance, it makes THE COMPANY MEN seem less artistically ambitious or accomplished, for me. But those subtleties I referred to redeem it. Like a scene where people in the corporate parking lot carry boxes with the contents of their desktops and drawers to their cars. It's shot from the perspective of a higher up worrying about his own status as he looks out the window, but from an angle that at first allows us to only see one person, and then slowly realize there are others. But rather then make that any more obvious, Wells chooses to keep most of them out of the frame and therefore the audience's perspective, just enough to know what the character who's looking out the window is seeing, a much larger (and deadly silent, from this window) exodus.

There are many scenes that are directed and written (or perhaps later edited) to keep the emotional perspective personal and not strident. And in the end, Wells can't resist a bit of uplift (unlike UP IN THE AIR), so the film feels pretty satisfying, though smaller than it could have been.

I would recommend it just for the acting, especially, as always, Tommy Lee Jones. Though I did find it difficult to accept Maria Bello as Jones's character's lover. She seemed miscast, only because Jones looks so much older and physically less vibrant or attractive than he ever has before. I know there are relationships like that (obviously, I've been in them!), but it still was jarring to notice how much Jones's shoulders seem to have diminished and his gut grown while his character is being projected as the object of attraction for this obviously much younger and model attractive woman.

But Wells has trouble with Affleck's character's wife as well, portraying her as much more accepting and willing and understanding and supportive and never worried or depressed by the family's financial downfall than any woman I've ever encountered, no matter how working-class or even poor their background may have been.

But aside from those caveats, or despite them, I was engaged throughout this flick by the acting alone, and other rewarding aspects of the film only added to that engagement. Check it out for yourself when you can and let me know what you think.

HERE'S A WELL MADE POINT

I'd have had a few different things on the list and wouldn't have ended the same way, but this makes the point very well (and thanks to my old friend Tom Wilson for hipping me to it):

(click on it to make it bigger)

PETE POSTLETHWAITE R.I.P.

A terrific actor I wish I'd had to opportunity to work with.

He was perfect in every role he played that I saw, but my favorite is the father of Daniel Day Lewis's character in IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER (and most recently the evil crime boss in THE TOWN).

He was only 64, a shame. Our condolences to all his family and friends and fans.

Here's two more images, one very early and one more recent (playing "Lear" I believe) that show the power of his mere physical presence (and he was pretty diminutive, but still held the screen with a power greater than most, if not all).

THIS ABOUT SUMS IT UP

Today's NY Times column by Bob Herbert.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Hard to deny this is a terrifically made movie. Aaron Sorkin's ability to write vibrant dialogue (as we all learned during his days writing The West Wing) has not diminished, as evidenced in the opening scene of this movie, which is like a very short one-act play with two characters, Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg and Rooney Mara playing Erica Albright.

It had me smiling with satisfaction and anticipation, knowing I was in for some great film making. But it also immediately raised one of the two major caveats I have about this film. That it's an excellently made movie, both in the writing and direction—which includes the acting, especially the leads, like an already much noted tour de force turn by Justin Timberlake as Sean Paker—is a given, but that it represents the true story of Facebook founder Zuckerberg's personality and life during the period covered, is not so solid.

As others have noted elsewhere, Zuckerberg went to an elite prep school where he not only was into computer technology and programming, but was a classics scholar as well, reading Greek and Latin, as well as captain of the fencing team.

From what I've read, he not only had a wide circle of friends and interests, he also during the time the movie covers, had a very attractive and accomplished steady girlfriend (who happens to be Asian-American and who he now lives with as she finishes her medical studies), and had no burning desire to be in an exclusive Harvard club or hang around with or get revenge on the wealthy WASP "legacy" students (children of alumni etc.).

And yet THE SOCIAL NETWORK not only portrays him as a monotone figure who's total focus on Facebook is a result of these drives—to avenge not being among the elect and to impress girls who he otherwise is portrayed as too nerdily socially dyslexic to have any success with.

Oddly, the only sexual contact/conquest the movie depicts of Zuckerberg's is a spontaneous encounter with an attractive Asian-American student who is portrayed as a groupie/fan of his Facebook creation and treated like a groupie by him in the movie, used and discarded.

Which brings me to the other caveat I have about this flick, if I were an Asian-American woman I'd be pretty offended by the way Asian-American coeds are treated as single-mindedly in pursuit of Jewish-American nerds with successful computer skills that make them look like future big-money-makers.

Brenda Song has the thankless role of the most extreme version of this, as Zuckerberg's original partner, Eduardo Saverin's, (more like financier, played by Andrew Garfield) witch of a girlfriend. I recognized Song from a Disney kid show my youngest used to watch incessantly, and whether it was that or just the way the role was written, I found her acting the weakest in a movie with almost no weak links in the cast (one of my favorite roles was of Zuckerberg's lawyer "Sy" played by my old friend John Getz, a seasoned actor you have probably seen in numerous roles on TV and in film, but he first made his mark as the lead in BLOOD SIMPLE).

So, THE SOCIAL NETWORK is a really terrific movie, like I said, but it is a bad rendition of a real person's life and motivation. My take on Zuckerberg is that like many artists and other creators he's motivated not by some obvious and easily dramatized personal agenda like getting back at the girl who rejected him or getting even with the WASPs who act superior to him, but by doing something that excites his interest and challenges his intellect and skills and that often turns out to be original, or innovative and has an impact on those who encounter it, no matter how many or few.

But as we well know by the dearth of films that actually convey that kind of motivation and process, it is very hard to make work as drama, without either making things up or focusing on extraneous but more dramatic stuff like addiction, alcoholism, sexual or romantic betrayal etc. In fact, I can't think of any film offhand that truly captures the spirit as well as the reality of how most creators I've known do what they do and what inspires them to do it.

So, if you haven't seen this movie, it's well worth watching, just take the characterization of Zuckerberg and his moment of inspiration, and the process that that led to with a grain of salt, as they say (though I haven't any idea why they say it). And maybe write a letter to Sorkin and David Fincher (the director) pointing out how biased the film is toward young Asian-American women.

JUST A THOUGHT

Back in Jersey, where the mercury climbed well above normal for winter, and it rained, like a Spring rain, this weekend.

Fortunately, because we already had three feet of snow on the ground at my place, it's now only down to one foot or so. So it still looked like winter on our arrival back, but didn't feel like it.

I wonder why the rightwingers who go on and on about how the winter weather we had last week with the big snowstorm here somehow proves that there is no such thing as global warming with their sarcasm and smugness, somehow thinking that winter weather in winter disproves the reality of temperatures descending every year so far in this century (the yearly average of course, though they seem incapable of that kind of abstract thinking, like, duh, it's cold in winter global warming must not exist) but the minute—or day or days or weeks or more—the thermometer rises to above the average for the season, sometimes way way above, they clam up, no word, change the subject, etc.

Just a thought.

CHECK THIS OUT

This singer/songwriter/dancer has been getting some attention as one of the bright spots of 2010, but I wasn't aware of her until the drummer in Bell Engine sent my older son Miles this video and he hipped me to it.

There's other stuff of hers out there with even more amazing dance moves, but something about the limitations of a late night TV show (on which she's making her television premier) makes this video even more special to me.

Watching this young woman in 2010 channel James Brown, among other great musical artists, is a total delight (but you have to watch it all the way through to get that). Check it out: