Three loyal executives get axed in a corporate downsizing frenzy that upends their lives. They each cope differently as they slip through the cascading stages of anger, humiliation, anxiety, introspection and so on, until they find their own resolve.
I saw this at the Sundance Film Festival premiere in Brookline, MA, prepared to be gripped by the powerhouse cast and the up-and-coming writer/director, John Wells. However, plot twists appear to have been on backorder, and the situations add up to little more than a sidelined subplot of Up In the Air. This is a situation drama, sort of like a situation comedy without the comedy (although it does have some humor).
Fortunately, the cast is a treat. Ben Affleck is convincing as the shot-down hotshot, Bobby Walker. And who can resist Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper as the older casualties? But they act more like boys than men, exhibiting the angst of spoiled teens. This is not to say that job loss and financial ruin are to be taken lightly. It's just that the men could have used some deeper dimension and pithier dialog like that in Glengarry Glen Ross, which much more powerfully conveys similar kinds of employee desperation and employer evil.
Rosemarie DeWitt as Maggie Walker admirably plays Bobby's (Affleck's) adult supervision. (Of interest, she is married in real life to Ron Livingston, the hero of Office Space, a cult favorite with a comedic take on similar themes.) Kevin Costner tries something different as a brash building contractor who helps Walker. However, his over-the-top Boston accent works against him, as does his apparent ignorance of how to do a proper renovation (plywood, really?).
There are a couple of odd distractions. For instance, Tommy Lee Jones's character says his CEO pal (played by Craig T. Nelson) was his college roommate, when we all know Jones roomed with Al Gore.
In short, Wells as a writer/director is not (at least yet) a David Mamet or a Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone was a triumph). But if you downsize your expectations, you may enjoy this anyway.
I saw this at the Sundance Film Festival premiere in Brookline, MA, prepared to be gripped by the powerhouse cast and the up-and-coming writer/director, John Wells. However, plot twists appear to have been on backorder, and the situations add up to little more than a sidelined subplot of Up In the Air. This is a situation drama, sort of like a situation comedy without the comedy (although it does have some humor).
Fortunately, the cast is a treat. Ben Affleck is convincing as the shot-down hotshot, Bobby Walker. And who can resist Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper as the older casualties? But they act more like boys than men, exhibiting the angst of spoiled teens. This is not to say that job loss and financial ruin are to be taken lightly. It's just that the men could have used some deeper dimension and pithier dialog like that in Glengarry Glen Ross, which much more powerfully conveys similar kinds of employee desperation and employer evil.
Rosemarie DeWitt as Maggie Walker admirably plays Bobby's (Affleck's) adult supervision. (Of interest, she is married in real life to Ron Livingston, the hero of Office Space, a cult favorite with a comedic take on similar themes.) Kevin Costner tries something different as a brash building contractor who helps Walker. However, his over-the-top Boston accent works against him, as does his apparent ignorance of how to do a proper renovation (plywood, really?).
There are a couple of odd distractions. For instance, Tommy Lee Jones's character says his CEO pal (played by Craig T. Nelson) was his college roommate, when we all know Jones roomed with Al Gore.
In short, Wells as a writer/director is not (at least yet) a David Mamet or a Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone was a triumph). But if you downsize your expectations, you may enjoy this anyway.