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5/25/2024

In Good Company (2004) - Stars sparkle in Weitz's easy-to-take dramedy

 

Three stars strike different positions with vacant stares on this unfavorable poster for Paul Weitz's In Good Company

A middle-aged gentleman is demoted in his company and gets a new boss who's just 26 years old, - and who on top of this starts dating the man's college student daughter.

 

In Good Company is written, co-produced and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Paul Weitz (American Pie (1999)).

It is an office comedy that is also a 'little league' drama, since it actually does handle its characters' fates with seriousness. The film lives on some good actors: Dennis Quaid (Playing by Heart (1998)) as the father; Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow (2021)) as his daughter; and Topher Grace (War Machine (2017)); sweet but with an ugly hairdo here as the new boss/daughter's love interest. In supporting roles Philip Baker Hall (Bad Words (2013)), Selma Blair (Ordinary World (2016)) and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange (1971)) brighten up scenes.

There's a couple of laughs here, but the script is still not really funny. It may be that it is a bit too sympathetic, and the characters too normal somehow.

 

Related posts: 

Paul WeitzAdmission (2013) - Despite messy script, Fey is hilarious in Weitz's romcom 

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) - Murphy brings down the house (co-writer) 

Top 10: Best high school titles 

Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies 

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

American Pie (1999) or, Losing It Before Prom 

 



 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 26 mil. $

Box office: 63.4 mil. $

= Minor flop (returned 2.43 times its cost)

[In Good Company premiered 6 December (Hollywood) and runs 110 minutes. Shooting took place around March 2004 in New York and Los Angeles, California. The film opened #31 to a 151k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #3, behind fellow new release Coach Carter and holdover hit Meet the Fockers, spending 2 weekends in the top 5 and grossing 45.8 mil. $ (72.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 2.9 mil. $ (4.6 %) and the UK with 2.3 mil. $ (3.6 %). The film won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Weitz returned with Cracking Up (2004, TV-series) and theatrically with American Dreamz (2006). Johansson returned in Match Point (2005); Grace in Ocean's Twelve (2004); and Quaid in Flight of the Phoenix (2004). In Good Company is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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