In Good Company

Director: Paul Weitz
Year Released: 2004
Rating: 1.0

Young whipper-snapper (Topher Grace, smirking and obnoxious; his 'awkwardness' is never more than a front) inherits a top job at a sports magazine, taking over for an experienced - but older - executive (Dennis Quaid) and allotting time in his busy schedule to sleep with Quaid's daughter, too (Scarlett Johansson). It 'tries' dealing with the type of corporate mergers and layoffs but really just pays the problem lip service, covering it with Hollywood gloss and queuing up the Peter Gabriel, Iron & Wine and Shins songs to accompany the sadcore montages - the ending is especially phony, suggesting that in the end, everything goes back to how it was, with the downsized miraculously rehired and the unqualified or arrogant (boooo!) punished. I'm also unsure of how much faith can be placed in an anti-conglomerate movie that is so free with the product placements - Porsche, Amstel Light, Heineken, Starbucks, etc. all get screen time. Talk about having it both ways.