'In Good Company' pays dividends in its rich relationships

Dennis Quaid is 51-year-old Dan Foreman: husband, father and veteran sales manager at a sports magazine. He has a daughter (Scarlett Johansson) in college and a baby on the way, but when the company is bought out by a corporate billionaire with a big reach and a vague business philosophy that couches downsizing in the more appealing term "synergy," he's instantly demoted.

MOVIE REVIEW

IN GOOD COMPANY

DIRECTOR: Paul Weitz

CAST: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson

RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for some sexual content and drug references

WHERE: Alderwood 7, Cinema 17, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Issaquah 9, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema 14, Meridian 16, Metro, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza 12, Redmond Town Center, Renton Village, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B+

Responsibility trumps wounded pride and he accepts the downgrade, but even that is tested when he meets his new boss: 26-year-old wunderkind Carter Duryea (Topher Grace). Guzzling extra-large espressos like bottled water, Carter takes charge with a try-too-hard eagerness, inspired by the gospel of synergy and the concept of success, but lacking in the practical experience of working with people and turning theory into commerce.

Without realizing it, lonely workaholic and social incompetent Carter latches onto Dan for both company and guidance.

The big complication in Paul Weitz's often painful comedy is that Carter winds up sleeping with Dan's daughter, willingly seduced by the young woman who just left the nest and is spreading her wings (the almost ritualistic way she sets the mood in her dorm room for seduction is one of Weitz's many deft and dead-on touches). But what looks like a veer into sex comedy turns into something completely, surprisingly different.

"In Good Company" is really about responsibility in the upside-down world of corporate takeovers and bottom-line reorganizations. It puts faces to the "dinosaurs" downsized out of their jobs by aggressive young businessmen and strips the facade off such euphemisms as "You're being let go."

Such observations are hardly revolutionary and writer/director Weitz never pretends they are. Under his low-key comedy is a clear-eyed observation of the people caught in the vice of corporate efficiency.

Carter, a sincere and decent guy, faces the names he's "letting go" in the name of profit for the first time in his rocketship ride up the business ladder. Suddenly all that theory hits the real world.

While a couple of Weitz's more idealistic notes ring false, "In Good Company" is a rarity. Grounded in fully realized characters and enriched by personal and professional relationships that are refreshingly (and at times deceivingly) rich and dimensional, it's a smart, savvy and satisfying Hollywood comedy set in the real world of economic survival, family responsibility and grown-up decisions with real consequences.

The Topher Grace file

Where did the 26-year-old actor get that name?

"My mom is a Patricia trapped in a Pat. She kind of talked me into what a cool name Christopher would be; I was with her on that. So I was, 'Yeah, when I go to boarding school, I'm gonna be Christopher Grace!' So I'd introduce myself like that, and they'd go, 'Hi, nice to meet you, Chris.' So I'd go, 'No, there's 'topher.' No one will call you Christopher in this lazy society."

How did he get his big break -- a role on "That '70s Show"?

"I had such an easy break. Basically, the parents of a girl who was in a play with me in high school (in Darien, Conn.) were television producers who called me up; my first audition, ever, was for 'That '70s Show.' When I tell that story, my out-of-work actor friends hate me. But I want to earn it now. I really try to do films that I'm proud of, because I really feel like I have to earn it in retrospect."

How does he feel about leaving the show at the end of this season?

"It's been just wonderful, and it's so sad. First of all, I grew up with those kids, so they're like a family. But not in the way that all these sitcoms say they're like families. We were all in our teens; Mila Kunis was 14 years old when we shot the pilot. We really went through a lot of formative years together. There is no better job in the universe, I think. I never cry, almost ever, but I think on that last night I'm gonna shed a few tears."

How did he avoid becoming a gossip magnet like co-stars Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama.

"I'm just a boring person, so I'm lucky, I guess. I really am. I'm into board games. I have a Monopoly club, the way some people have a poker group. By the way, I'm undefeated. We recently just bought on the board game black market an unsanctioned by Parker Brothers Triopoly, which is three boards on top of each other. When you hit Free Parking, you actually travel up. There are 50 different states on it. It took us 12 hours to finish it."

How does he feel about his roles in his last two films, "P.S." and "In Good Company"?

"What I really liked about 'P.S.' ... was hooking someone with the humor. If you make someone laugh, something chemical is going on between the person in the audience and the person on screen. You kind of get them on your side a little bit; it's a great way to sugarcoat the pill.

"Another thing is, I've been really lucky to find two scripts in a row in which characters change a lot in the course of the film. It's impossible to throw emotion on a point no one cares about; it ends up gratuitous."

-- Los Angeles Daily News

Sean Axmaker is a movie reviewer and freelance film writer based in Seattle. He can be reached via e-mail at seanax@hotmail.com.