In Good Company review

In Good Company's writer and director Paul Weitz showed with his earlier About A Boy, a talent for creating a warm and amusing work exploring a relationship involving a young man and an older father figure. Here the two central characters are somewhat older, their circumstances very different from About A Boy's Will and Marcus, but the effect is the same. In Good Company is a light, feel good cautionary tale on the cost of success, with solid performances from Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace, who share a paternal rapport.

Quaid is at his most effective when playing regular, down home characters. As the 51-year old advertising executive Dan Foreman he brings a wearied authenticity. Foreman is head of ad sales at the weekly magazine Sports America. He takes pride in his work and nurturing a loyal staff. When the company is bought out, he finds his office and position taken over by 26-year old whiz kid Carter Duryea (Topher Grace).

Told to increase productivity and decrease salaries, Duryea goes about ruthlessly axing staff. Dan's indignity is complete when Carter proposes making him his "wing man." If it were not for his newly pregnant wife (Marg Helgenberger) and eldest daughter Alex's (Scarlett Johansson) NYU school fees, Dan would gladly tell Carter where to go. As it is though, he is obliged to suck up his humiliation.

After this all too familiar take on the brutality of corporate values, In Good Company exudes its softer, fuzzier underbelly. Turns out Carter is a sad, lonely figure who has sacrificed his personal life in his quest to climb the corporate ladder. Divorced after seven months of marriage, in lieu of friends he has a fish and to bolster his self-esteem, he buys a Porsche. What he doesn't have is one thing money can't buy: integrity. It's a quality he admires in Dan.

Over the course of In Good Company, the relationship between the two men evolves from boss and assistant to one of pupil and teacher as Carter learns from Dan the true value of things. Events get slightly more complicated, though when Carter becomes involved with Dan's young daughter Alex.

In Good Company looks set to launch the big screen career of Topher Grace. As the slick, soulless Carter, he exhibits a vulnerability and charm that is key is transforming a potentially obnoxious character into an object of sympathy rather than scorn. Johannson and Helgenberger provide strong support, but it's the deft connection between Grace and Quaid that gives it its identity.

It would be easy to dismiss the ending as an unlikely scenario in the cutthroat and unsentimental world of corporate politics, but In Good Company is not trying to be Wall Street. Instead it's trying to offer hope to aging employees everywhere, while in the process fulfill its title, which it does.

Kevin Murphy