In Good Company (PG-13, 2004)

IN GOOD COMPANY follows the evolving relationship between business associates Carter, who is green at just 26 years old, and his old school colleague Dan (Dennis Quaid). They're both employed at a company where things are changing to a slicker, bottom line-oriented and less personal way of doing business. Carter is put in charge of ad sales for a slick sports magazine, an event that pushes Dan aside. Dan would like to leave the company since the new environment doesn't suit his style, but he must support his family including college student Alex (Scarlett Johansson). His prospects for getting another job that would pay for all of that are poor at his age and in this market. Carter's sharp, but he doesn't know anything about ad sales. Dan's essential decency, combined with his sense of what is necessary for survival, leads him to reach out to Carter. And when Carter makes a shameless ploy to be invited over for dinner, Dan brings him home. Carter sees all that Dan has and for once he stops selling. He tells Alex that for some reason, she is the only one he feels he has to tell the truth to. And they begin a romance.

The script of In Good Company feels patched together and some of those patched-together pieces feel very stale -- the corporate raider element of the plot is about 15 years out of date. There is nothing wrong with making the movie about the journeys taken by both Dan and Carter, but it doesn't quite manage to do that; instead it seems to equivocate, itself not clear on who the movie is about. The seams show worst with the ending, which is particularly artificial.

But there is a lot of compensation in exceptionally warm and fully-realized performances by all of the principals. Quaid makes Dan feel complete and lived-in, and he makes his marriage feel real and lived-in as well. Grace is one of today's most promising young actors, and he makes what could easily have been a shallow character into something special, showing us Carter's strength, intelligence, and ability as well as his longing and insecurity. The relationships they put on the screen are far greater than what was on the page -- now that's synergy. These are people who are very good company indeed.

Studio: Universal Pictures
Director: Paul Weitz
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Scarlett Johansson, Topher Grace
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 110 minutes
Theatrical release: December 29, 2004
DVD release: May 10, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: some sexual content and drug references