Review – In Good Company

It’s sad when a production has no greater aspiration than to be a romantic comedy and yet can’t even jump that relatively low hurdle. The set-up is here: fifty-something salesman copes with new baby on the way while his new, much younger boss secretly dates his eldest daughter (and yes, it’s legal, however marginally). If they’d just stuck with that, they might have come out okay. But then the subplot about corporate downsizing and the developing buddy relationship between old-timer and upstart overwhelm the entire picture, especially after the romance goes bad. The casting doesn’t help. Dennis Quaid has finally come to grips with the loss of his boyish charm, but that doesn’t leave him with much beyond a sad sort of Harrison-Ford-wannabe approach to roles. Scarlett Johansson does an okay job as the love interest, though her hair, makeup and wardrobe changes put her through an ageing and de-ageing ping pong match that was unsettling in places. And Topher Grace just needs to stick to TV sitcoms. Overall this movie falls flat because it doesn’t follow the formula well enough to succeed as what it pretends to be, and what it is isn’t interesting enough to survive on its own. Mildly amusing