In The Company of Men

This indie flick was fairly well-received (critically) when it first came out and helped launch the career of Aaron Eckhart. I can't say I really like it all that much, but I can see where it's coming from. It was obvious from the outset that this it was made on a fairly small budget... it's amateurish in part, features little in the way of dynamic camera work and seems quite vague at times.

The premise of the film is interesting, to say the least. Two men (Eckhart and Matt Molloy), tired of female rejection and away on business for six weeks, decide to wreak their revenge on women by focusing their manly attentions on the weakest, plainest, most unloved female they can find, and then dumping her after bringing her to as high a point as possible. They find their victim in the form of Christine (Stacy Edwards), a deaf woman who works for their business.

The film works like a series of sketches, ranging from the blackly funny and surprisingly realistic to the expositionary and pointlessly dull. The film is funniest when focusing on the cocky antics of Eckhart's character Chad. He's the more confident of the two men, especially in relation to their workplace - hilariously satirising inner-business and office politics with his antics. Unfortunately, the film becomes very dull in other parts, as if it wanted to make a point of not being a complete comedy. The acting is nothing exceptional, and the plot also seems to lose it's way a bit towards the end.

I'm at a loss as to why I complimented the film's funny parts that much. It makes it sound like it's almost worth seeing. It's not, it's dull and amateurish, and not the brilliant satire it wants to be. The film has some interesting points to make about 'the company of men', but I feel that any message it wants to make is undermined by it's weaknesses.

Director Neil LaBute made his name on this film and has gone on to be a hack of the most supreme order, directing films like the Nicolas Cage-starring remake of The Wicker Man and the American version of Death at a Funeral. I can say this completely objectively because the bulk of this review was written years before he even made these films (back in 2003), and I'm only just adding this reflection now in my 2011 revision of this review... so I didn't like him back then, and time has proven me to be right!

DIRECTOR: Neil LaBute
WRITER/SOURCE: Neil LaBute
KEY ACTORS: Aaron Eckhart, Matt Molloy, Stacy Edwards

RELATED TEXTS:
- This could be viewed as part of a late 1990s spate of dark indie-ish films examining dysfunctionalism and relationships with extreme black humour... other (better) films that come to mind are Happiness, Swimming with Sharks, Buffalo '66, American Beauty, Clerks and Punch-Drunk Love.

AWARDS
Independent Spirit - won Best Debut Performance (Eckhart) and Best First Screenplay. Also nominated for Best Female Lead (Stacy Edwards) and Best First Feature.
Sundance Film Festival - won Filmmakers Trophy (Dramatic). Also nominated for Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic).