In the Company of Men

Neil LaBute's first film consists of a single idea. Two white-collar men sent by their company to another city for a temporary posting make a plan out of boredom: both will court the same woman, make her fall in love, and drop her at the same moment. The person they select is a deaf secretary. The horror is not in scenes of violence but in the talk. Chad, played by Aaron Eckhart, delivers every line smiling, and nothing he says to her is technically a lie. LaBute never moves the camera, leaves it in long static setups, and gives the viewer nothing to do but look. It was shot in eleven days on a very low budget at a four to one ratio, meaning almost no second takes. It screened at Sundance on 19 January 1997, where LaBute took the directing prize, and Eckhart was named best debut performance at the Independent Spirit Awards. It made two million eight hundred thousand dollars in cinemas. Who it is for: viewers who value disquieting independent films that work through speech. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for punishment or justice, which the film deliberately withholds.