Last night, saw In Good Company with some LA area bloggers. See the trailer and visit the official movie site to check it out.
I liked the movie. It is a coming of age slice of life film with Dennis Quaid as an aging ad executive whose family means the world to him and Topher Grace as the wiz-kid MBA half Quaid's age who takes over Quaid's job whose life has never included family. The conflict between the two at work is inevitable which gets heightened by events outside their work lives intertwines them with comic and dramatic results.
Scarlett Johansson whom I loved in Lost In Translation continues to prove the saying that sometimes less is better in acting. She does speak more than in Lost In Translation but still says so much with just her expressions. She comes across as quite believable, vulnerable and likable as Quaid's college aged daughter.
I loved the compilation of songs used as the soundtrack of the movie. I can't say I recognize the lyrics of many of the songs but they set the mood nicely.
The film is very dependent on the conversations and reactions of the characters and they pull it off well. With any dialog heavy movie, if not done right, one can get bored and lost quite easily and early. These kinds of movies only work if the pacing of the story is right and the actors endear themselves to the audience. There are no wiz kaboom special effects to hold your attention!
As I watched, I rooted for the characters and wanted to know what would happen to them. The movie is not a tear jerker type of movie but at one of the more dramatic moments I found myself misting up which told me I was engaged with the characters. There are many moments of humor, a few of them laugh out loud ones. And at moments, the movie was sentimental and skates to the edge of being too cute for its own good but, hey, what's wrong with that? Movies don't always have to dwell in the dark underbelly of life!
Three stars out a possible four.
As for LA area bloggers, I met Frankly Speaking, Ben's Blog and Kicking Over My Traces. In all, 16 of us got to see the film as guests of Grace Hill Media the agency helping market In Good Company. I also happened to be the raffle winner and got an In Good Company executive briefcase bag!
UPDATE: Here are some photos from the Traces blog! She gave the movie a thumbs up with a more detailed review to come.
UPDATE: Ben's Blog review of the film is also up and he gives the movie a thumbs up as well. He is a fellow Dodger fan!
UPDATE: I met one other blogger but forgot his URL. However, through the wonders of Technorati I was able to find the blogger with the Lord of the Rings based URL which is home to Get ... Fuzzy. His review of the movie is here.
UPDATE: I wonder how many blogger took advantage of the Grace Hill Media offer? How many then blogged about it? This Technorati search at 8pm PST Jan 12 yielded 27 hits.
1 comment:
I enjoyed the movie a lot. There were a few intellegent scenes where I found myself laughing out loud as well. This is refreshing compared to slapstick humor from other movies.
The movie is shallow enough so that there is nothing to debate about. I enjoyed the Dennis Quaid character but one thing bothered me. How can an advertising executive not understand the corporate takeover mentality, cross advertising and the internet? It sounds like he's got his head in the sand and refuse to come out. He should of been the first one to get fired if that's the case.
Then there is the relationship between Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson. So let's exhibit to dad, all his friends, coworkers, fired ex-workers, in the driveway, in front of the house, through a big glass window, in broad daylight, their relationship and NOBODY NOTICED. Do they too have their heads in the sand? Of all the rumors that get circulated in the company, it's who's getting fired, not who the boss is dating and the conflict of interest it represents.
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