By Robert Rossi, Editorial Assistant -

For those who haven’t heard, the United States has been in a recession for a little while. Americans have been losing jobs at alarming rates, and John Wells took it upon himself to direct, co-produce, and write a film exploring the painful effects. The Company Men centers on successful white-collar workers who unexpectedly get the axe and are forced to (gasp!) sell their Porsches and give manual labor a try; not the first people who come to mind as the victims of America’s economic crisis. It’s to the credit of first-time director Wells (a veteran of television writing and production, most notably with E.R.) that the audience sympathizes with these money-grubbing corporate suits.

Shot on location, The Company Men takes place in Boston and stars Hub resident Ben Affleck. I don’t know if Wells had Affleck in mind for the role as he was writing the script, but casting a Bostonian in the lead was a nice touch. Affleck plays Bobby Walker, a sales exec for Global Transportation Systems (GTX for short) who gets fired within the film’s first 10 minutes. Walker initially refuses to acknowledge the possibility that he may not immediately find another job, but slowly realizes that he can no longer afford his lavish, pre-firing lifestyle. He stars to figure out that there is more to life than money and learns to appreciate the value of blue-collar work when he starts a contracting job with his brother-in-law played by Kevin Costner. The film starts with Walker sharing insider stock tips with his white-collar buddies, and closes with a one-on-one basketball game between Walker and his son in his parents’ driveway; he’s figured out that family is more important than money. Yes, this character progression is a bit cliché, but it never feels sappy, partly because Wells’ directing style is so understated and partly because Affleck is so suited to playing a cocky jerk who gets the rug pulled out from under him.

Contrasting with Walker is Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), a high level executive who grows disillusioned with his company’s total focus on increasing its share price and loses his job because of it. McClary’s character is far more interesting than Walker’s, and Jones is the perfect part for the role (think Sheriff Ed Tom Bell moved from West Texas to a boardroom in Boston). He also gets the best lines. After listening to a younger executive justify the ethics of implementing yet another round of layoffs at GTX in order to cut costs, McClary shoots back, “I guess I assumed we were trying for a higher standard than that, Paul.” It is rewarding and a bit inspiring to see that at least one of these corporate big shots has some standard of decency. But McClary’s most memorable line comes during a visit to an abandoned GTX shipyard, when he looks over the site where six thousand men once earned an honest pay and declares, “Everything I spent 30 years trying to build for myself, and everybody else is gone.” He has achieved everything that a successful businessman could want, but is filled with regret over the cost.

The Company Men is terrifying because it is so relevant. Anyone watching this film can sympathize with the laid-off characters because their troubles could easily, without warning, become anyone’s problems. What father wouldn’t dread to be in Walker’s place when he calls himself “a 37-year-old loser who can’t support his family?”  Walker committed no crime, did nothing wrong; his problems are completely out of his hands and apparently have no solution. Walker’s drama has been played out in real life across the country over the past year and a half, and every member of the audience knows that he could become Walker the next time he shows up for work.

Wells should be applauded for his use of the actual city of Boston in the film. When McClary looks out of a half-done skyscraper at the view from his future office, the pure beauty of the city’s skyline will amaze any viewer. Bostonians will appreciate Wells’ choice to set a touch football game set on the Public Gardens. And of course, the film is not without its Boston accents. The best of the bunch is easily Costner’s. Costner plays the only character that can approach anything close to upbeat, and the single most joyous moment of the film is when he appears onscreen for the first time. Looking about 50 pounds overweight, he rocks the Red Sox hat and drops his R’s like a pro. Easily one of the top highlights of the film.

Wells delivers a tremendous finished product for a debut directorial effort. Every small detail of the film works to capture the hopelessness of the central characters. The soundtrack is sedated and brooding. Wells emphasizes the color white in most shots, capturing the monotony of a life lived entirely to boost share prices. The viewer feels almost suffocated by the abundance of white, so that when a shot composed of other colors appears on the screen, the film gains a new sense of life and energy. Even the most dramatic of scenes, specifically one depicting a suicide, are tastefully understated. Wells never lets the film slip into melodrama, which increases the realism, and subsequently, heightens its impact and message.

*The Company Men was screened at Sundance Film Festival USA locations, one of which is the Coolidge Corner Theatre.