In Good Company (2004)

Situation: Shortly after 51 year-old Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) discovers that his impossibly beautiful wife, Ann (Marg Helenberger), is expecting another child, he is replaced as the head of ad sales at Sport America (faux Sports Illustrated) by 26 year-old wunderkid, Carter Duryea (Topher Grace), who did something good with cell phones. In order to keep his job, Dan works closely with Carter. The two develop a precarious friendship that is jeopardized when Carter falls for Dan's impossibly beautiful college-aged daughter, Alex (Scarlett Johansson).

A Topher Grace double bill! I was going to review another movie in between, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity for double bill. Have I ever knowingly had a double bill before? I'm not sure.

Anyway, I doubt I will be able to discuss this movie without talking about the end, so you should just stop reading if you, like me, are allergic to spoilers. In the sense that you want to react with violence towards the ruiner who didn't at least warn you.

Because it's so rude.

Okay, that should be long enough for those with less than stellar will power to click off. On to the real reviewing.

And the real Topher Grace! Damn you sitcom that ran out of fuel about one season after it started. Damn extreme thinness than stopped me from seeing it before! Grace has got it goin' on, and I mean that in more ways than one. His still sitcom-esque delivery didn't entirely jive with p.s., but it works wonderfully here. Grace shines like he was born to play a disillusioned yuppie, and his Carter is sweet, funny, and even a bit silly. He won the National Board of Review's award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor for this movie coupled with yesterday's.

Quaid, whom I've never entirely understood as an actor, seems to be relishing this latter-day come back. And, unlike another actor with four movies out this year (of course I'm not talking about you, Jude), he never seems tired or worn-out. I mean, he does in the sense that his character does, but Quaid's lined faced and furrowed brow only serve to cover some truly sparkling eyes. He's having fun, never worried about making the comedy bits comedic or the drama bits dramatic. I'm not too sure what they did to his hair colour, though.

Paul Weitz, writer-director of the rollickin' Nick Hornby adaptation, About a Boy, has attempted a Nick Hornby story of his very own. Sure, he forgot that part of Hornby's charm is that his protagonist is always a lovable asshole, but I suppose that isn't necessary. Instead of relying on a gimmick, as so many writers do, Weitz gives his audience something worth so much more: heart. You just don't get enough of that anymore.

Johasson basically has no character to speak of, so Weitz made up for that by naming her Alex. Yes, the names convey it all here, folks. Dan Foreman - he's a good ol' boy but not in the evil Republican way. Carter Duryea - He's new and got a foreign sounding last name! Can we trust him? Alex - it's the kind of girl's name that suggests that she's got something going on upstairs but not in a pretentious way. Of course, girls with boy's or boy-like names are always tomboys in some sort of a way, like how Alex plays tennis. She wants to do creative writing, too, don't you see, and she has pretty fabric to cover her lamps with, so she's also artistic and sensitive. It's a good thing I like Johasson up there on the movie screen, or I might have had to riot at her caricature rather than character.

I was especially pleased that they didn't waste all the feel good moments in the preview, unlike, say, Spanglish. That said, the movie ended exactly the way I knew it would for Dan. Carter ended up as he should have, except without Alex. He's better off in the long run for it because she was simply too full of the arrogance of youth to appreciate him. Notice I said "arrogance of youth" not "youthfully arrogant" because I'm referring to the kind of arrogance that we all possess while we are young simply because we don't know any better. If it were the other way around, it'd be the combination of youth and arrogance that, even as a youth, you should really know better.

Even so, I kind of wanted to berate her for losing "one of the good ones." The reality is that guys like that don't come walking around the corner everyday, so she really is the one who is losing out. Ah, well, Carter had to find himself and such.

Maybe a movie where you realize that you need to find yourself is even better than one where you do find yourself by the third act. Or maybe not. Stay tuned. B+

As you well know, those Golden Globe things happened the other night, and they smacked of more vindication for April. Somebody better call the Academy before I get really smug. Here's a link to recap what you missed:http://www.hfpa.org/goldenglobeawards.html.