The Company Men, opening Jan. 21. Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is living the proverbial American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When corporate downsizing leaves him and co-workers Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) and Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands and fathers.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
4 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
All I need is some Hollywood "triumph of the will" nonsense about the importance of family and keeping shoulders to the wheel. My best friend, who lost his job last year, just lost his wife when she ran off with a new financially secure lover. Why don't these Hollywood screen writers talk to real people rather than perpetuating this American dream fiction guff.
ReplyDeleteLOVE the movie's tagline:
ReplyDeleteIn America we give our lives to our jobs.
It's time to take them back.
Irony is that those who were laid off can't afford to see this movie. I'll have to wait until it makes it to the Red Box (rentals).
In the New York Times review of the movie the company they worked for sure sounds a lot like Gannett:
What matters at GTX is not the quality of work but keeping the stock price afloat, partly to justify the $22 million salary of a chief executive who views the thousands of ruined lives of former employees as worth the short-term uptick.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/movies/10company.html
Just love that clip. I got laid off back in August of '09 after 21 years with Gannett from the newsroom where I won more awards than I had space to hang them on. There was never a Porsche in the garage (I don't even have a garage) and at 49, I'm working in a warehouse, painting crawlspaces, digging ditches and mixing cement by hand. Not where i'd thought i'd be. Where is my Tommy Lee Jones coming to offer me "another shot"? Gotta love Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteI too had a job with Gannett for over 22 years, no garage, shitty little house (thankful for it though) and a 14 year old truck. When I started there I lived at the beach with a garage, you could hear the waves at night. Now I get to hear gunshots, sirens and live next door to a crack-head. That's what dedication gets you. When I started at the "Death Star" called Gannett, I had a new Corvette and a 1966 Corvette in the garage. I worked my ass off for them, blinked, and they sucked the life right out of me. In return they kicked me to the curb (again thankful). I just celebrated a year and a half since my departure from the hole. I highly recommend the documentary "Lemonade" if yopu have been laid-off. It's more true to form and inspiring. I bet if there were some digging, "Company Men" is some how tied to Gannett. It probably has a product placement for Career Builder or USA Today. They bought it with the money they made off of the layoff casualties. I still dream of winning the lottery, purchacing the company, and firing the board and replacing them with monkeys or the two from trading places (Randolf and Mortimer). I just don't have the money to play.
ReplyDelete