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

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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 Weitz: Admission (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.]

 

What do you think of In Good Company? 

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

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The film's two stars are the whole show on this simple poster for Paul Weitz's Admission

Portia Nathan is a Princeton admissions officer, who is competing for a raise while also interacting with the critical leader of a small school, who has a special student who is eying the prestigious university for his further studies.

Tina Fey (Martin & Orloff (2002)) is really funny here, and a fan of hers will enjoy most of Admission simply for her performance and several divine line deliveries in it. Lily Tomlin (The Pink Panther 2 (2009)) is also funny as Fey's feminist mother, as is Oleg Krupa (Blood Ties (2013)) as her Russian romantic interest. Paul Rudd (Wanderlust (2012)) is good as the critical school leader, although he isn't heading the fun factor in Admission.
The film has a problematic script: SPOILER A leading plot thread concerns Fey's realizing that Rudd's prodigy student (cute Nat Wolff (Stuck in Love (2012)) struggles with the part) must be her biological son, and it doesn't really work. Rudd is a single father to an adopted son from Africa himself here, and that almost completely unproblematic aspect also seems like something of an assertion. - Is the story mainly about Fey's finally taking a stance against her difficult mother, her situation with her strange job, about her discovering she may have a son, or is it about the educational system in general, her romance with Rudd, - or Rudd's sweet adopted son? (He is played by Travaris Spears (Freedom (2014)).
Karen Croner (One True Thing (1998)) has written the messy script, adapting the same-titled 2009 novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (The White Rose (2006)), and great New-Yorker filmmaker Paul Weitz (Grandma (2015)) directed it. Admission gets by mainly due to Fey's hilarious main performance.

Related post: 

Paul Weitz: American Pie (1999) or, Losing It Before Prom

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: 18.6 mil. $
= Big flop
[Admission premiered 22 March (North America and the Philippines) and runs 108 minutes. Filming took place in New Jersey, including at Princeton University, and in New York, from May 2012 - ?. The film opened #5, behind fellow new releases The Croods and Olympus Has Fallen and holdover hits Oz the Great and Powerful and The Call to a 6.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its second week and grossed 18 mil. $ (96.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 343k $ (1.8 %) and the UK with 104k $ (0.6 %). The film's terrible international performances killed its chance of becoming theatrically successful. Weitz returned with Grandma, again with Tomlin. Admission is rotten at 38 % with a 5.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Admission?

A Single Man (2009) or, Tom Ford's Should I Stay or Should I Go?

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Stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore look stylish on the poster for Tom Ford's A Single Man

1962: George is struggling with grief after his partner Jim's death. While the Cuba crisis is threatening world peace outside, George wants to shoot himself. But different people get in the way.

 
A Single Man is written by David Scearce (Measure of a Man (2018)) and debuting great Texan co-writer/director Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals (2016)), adapting the same-titled 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood (Down There on a Visit (1962)).

Firstly, the problems in fashion designer Ford's first entry into the world of filmmaking: Structurally, because we first get to know a great many things about George's loss, which could have been saved for later, to hit us with a larger force; especially since the film is not told in a linear style anyway. The use of color to illustrate life throughout the film seems trite and banal, just as part of the message of A Single Man, (live each day etc.) Finally there's the problem of Ford's aesthetics: Nearly every one in the film comments on how awful George looks, when, in fact, he couldn't look more stylish and spectacular. He is also surrounded by continually wildly attractive supermodel-looking people. These are, of course, the faults of a fashion designer who enters into filmmaking, thinking that his film must be as stylish as his fashion. With A Single Man in some periods you almost get the sense at times that the film serves as a prolonged commercial for Ford's fashion.
So what's so good about A Single Man as to make it succeed anyway then?
The film is a gay love story told without inhibitions, and without the sexual preference being the central issue in it. There's also some really fine, real scenes between the immersive, Oscar-nominated Colin Firth (The King's Speech (2010)) in the lead and Julianne Moore (The Hours (2002)) showing her very best side as George's old friend. Matthew Goode (Allied (2016)) and Nicholas Hoult (The Weather Man (2005)) are also wholly lovely in the film.
A Single Man has a boring end, and it is generally a bit overrated, but I still can't but embrace it in spite of its flaws.

Related post:

Tom Ford:  Nocturnal Animals (2016) - T. Ford achieves greatness with plot-driven, stylish crime drama

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 24.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.55 times its cost)

[A Single Man premiered 11 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took 21 days in California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #21 to a 217k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #17 and in 353 theaters (different weeks), grossing 9.1 mil. $ (36.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4 mil. $ (16.1 %) and Germany with 1.6 mil. $ (6.4 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Actor (Firth), lost to Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. It won 1/2 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for 3 Independent Spirit awards, won 2 prizes in Venice, and was nominated for 3 Golden Globes, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Ford returned with Nocturnal Animals (2016). Firth returned in A Chrismas Carol (2009); Moore in Chloe (2009). A Single Man is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of A Single Man?