In Good Company (2004 Film)
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''In Good Company'' is a
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
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romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
, written and directed by Paul Weitz, and starring
Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include ''Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...
,
Topher Grace Christopher John Grace ( ; born July 12, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Eric Forman in the Fox sitcom ''That '70s Show'', Eddie Brock / Venom in Sam Raimi's film ''Spider-Man 3'', Pete Monash in ''Win a Date with Tad Ham ...
, and
Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...
. The film is set around a middle-aged advertising executive whose company is bought out by a large international corporation leaving him with a new boss who is nearly half his age. His life is further complicated when his boss takes a romantic interest in his daughter. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $61 million worldwide.


Plot

Dan Foreman is a 51-year-old advertising executive and head of sales for ''Sports America'', a major sports magazine. Happily married with two daughters, Dan faces a life-changing event when his magazine is bought out by Globecom, an international corporation that promotes the corporate concept of "synergy". After Dan is forced to fire several of his longtime colleagues, he is demoted and becomes the "wingman" of his new boss, Carter Duryea, a 26-year-old business school prodigy. While Dan develops clients through handshake deals and relationships, Carter champions the corporate creed of synergy, cross-promoting the magazine with the cell phone division and "Krispity Krunch", a snack food also owned by Globecom. Dan and Carter are both facing challenges in their personal lives. Dan is supporting two daughters—16-year-old Jana and 18-year-old Alex who is preparing to enter college—and learns that his wife is pregnant with their third child. Meanwhile, Carter is dumped by his adulterous, narcissistic wife of seven months and focuses all of his energy on work. With Dan facing the financial realities of taking out a second
mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...
to cover his daughter's college education costs and a new child, and with Carter needing Dan's practical, real-life experience in the field of advertising, the two form an uneasy friendship. Carter, who has been struggling with loneliness following the breakup of his marriage, invites himself to dinner at Dan's, where he meets his daughter Alex, and there is an immediate attraction. Their initial friendship allows Carter to forget his loneliness, and Alex, now attending NYU, is able to escape her own loneliness and boredom. In the coming days, Carter and Alex become romantically involved. Fearful of offending her father, they keep their relationship a secret. Their friendship, however, takes a turn for the worse when Dan discovers that Carter and Alex have been seeing each other. He approaches them in a restaurant, and punches his boss in the face. The confrontation with her father convinces Alex to break up with Carter who is heartbroken. Soon after, Globecom CEO Teddy K visits the sales office and during a grand speech to all the employees on synergy and other similar corporate business strategies, he is questioned by Dan and shrugs him off. Carter's boss, Mark Steckle, tells Carter to fire Dan. He refuses, claiming that losing Dan will cost them a major advertising contract. Steckle gives them 24 hours to seal the contract or be fired. As Dan has developed a long-term relationship with the client, Carter gives way to Dan's personal approach. The strategy works, and they conclude a deal. Following another corporate shakeup, ''Sports America'' is sold off, Carter is let go, and Dan returns to his former position as head of sales. Having developed fatherly feelings toward Carter, Dan offers him a position in his new department as his "wingman", but he declines, saying he needs to take some time and discover what he really wants to do in his life. On his way out of the building, Carter runs into Alex, and they exchange pleasantries. Dan's wife gives birth to a girl. He calls Carter in Los Angeles (who is jogging outdoors for the first time and feels like a new man) with the news.


Cast


Reception

''In Good Company'' received mostly positive reviews and has a rating of 83% on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 169 reviews with an average score of 7.05/10. The consensus states "The witty and charming ''In Good Company'' offers laughs at the expense of corporate culture." The film also has a score of 66 out of 100 on
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
based on 40 reviews. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


TV series

On October 14, 2014 (on the film's 10th Anniversary),
Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predeces ...
hired
Josh Bycel Josh Bycel is a television writer/producer. He has worked on such shows as ''Veronica's Closet'', ''It's All Relative,'' '' Andy Barker P.I.,'' and ''American Dad!.'' He was hired as the executive producer and co-showrunner (along with Bill Lawre ...
and Jon Fenner from ''
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'' to develop a TV show based on the film for
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
.


References


External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 2004 romantic comedy-drama films 2004 films American business films American romantic comedy-drama films Films about advertising Films about businesspeople Films directed by Paul Weitz Films set in New York City Universal Pictures films Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New York City Films scored by Stephen Trask Films with screenplays by Paul Weitz 2000s English-language films 2000s American films