In Good Company

IN GOOD COMPANY, starring Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid, and Scarlet Johansson. It's a movie about young people trying to find their places in life, older people trying to protect theirs, and the difficult interplay of generations in a culture that values vigor over wisdom.

This doesn't sound like the setup for a very fun movie, does it? Have no fear: the picture was made by the Weitz brothers, the guys who did the surprisingly funny AMERICAN PIE and the surprisingly good ABOUT A BOY. Paul Weitz, who wrote and directed the movie, deftly handles the dynamics of family and office, and he manages to balance the laugh-out-loud moments with the tear-jerkers. He's aided in this by Johansson, who's rapidly becoming the most interesting actress of her generation; Grace, who comes across as the most likeable guy in the world even when he's playing the corporate shark; and Quaid, who's at the top of his game as a man who feels his life is falling apart at the very moment when it should all be coming together.

Regarding Dennis Quaid, he's one of those guys who has been in movies as long as I've been paying serious attention to them. He's a reliable actor, but I never paid him much notice. Now, as he approaches his fifties, he's maturing into a comfortable presence, the kind of guy with whom I'm happy to sit down for an hour and half. He broke my hearT in FREQUENCY, blew me away in TRAFFIC, carried THE ROOKIE, and really shines in IN GOOD COMPANY. There's this scene in which he's just helped his daughter (Johannson) move into her dorm room. As he hugs her goodbye, the range of emotions playing across his face was so evocative that I exclaimed, "Now that's acting!" (Ok, I exclaimed it in my internal monologue, but still.) The guy doesn't have a perfect eye for scripts (THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, COLD CREEK MANOR), but he does good work. Watching his work here is a real treat, and I hope he continues to act well into his eighties.

IN GOOD COMPANY came and went without making much of a splash, but it's worth the rental. It's not every day you come across a story well told and well played.