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Saturday, June 16, 2012

In Good Company (2004) [PG-13] ****



Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) is a fifty-something ad sales executive at a Southern California sports magazine, the flagship publication at a small publishing company. Over the years he’s put together a great sales team, but times are tough and they’re feeling the pressure from online sports publications. Now, they’ve just gotten word that Globecom, a global media conglomerate has bought their parent company and they know that it means budget cuts and layoffs.

Dan’s boss, and new ad sales VP, is 26-year-old Carter Duryea (Topher Grace). Carter’s only sales experience is with cellular phones, so he’s intimidated by Dan. In addition, Carter’s wife is in the process of divorcing him, so he’s lonely as well. So, when Dan invites him home for dinner, and Carter meets Dan’s lovely college-age daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson), and Alex lets him know that she’s interested in him, Carter cannot resist. Although Alex and Carter try to keep their relationship secret from her father, it’s inevitable that Dan finds out.


Written and directed by Paul Weitz (About a Boy), the plot is straightforward, there’s nothing particularly memorable about the dialogue, and there are no real twists in the story. What makes In Good Company entertaining is the chemistry among all three leads, and particularly the father-son relationship that develops between Dan and Carter. Production values are excellent, the soundtrack is very good, and there’s a terrific supporting cast, including Marg Helgenberger as Dan’s wife Ann, David Paymer as Morty, one of Dan’s ad sales team members, Clark Gregg as Carter’s boss at Globecom, Selma Blair as Carter’s wife, and Malcolm McDowell(uncredited) as Globecom CEO Teddy K. If you enjoy films like Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal or Wimbledon, you’ll probably enjoy In Good Company


Labels: college, comedy, drama, rom-drama-faves, romance     

Internet Movie Database 6.5/10     
Metacritic 66/100     
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=71, viewers=60)
Blu-ray

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