The Company Men

A film about white-collar workers who lost their jobs after the 2008 crisis. Bobby is a sales manager at a large company. High salary, expensive car, mortgaged house. One morning he is let go. His first response is to think he will find something quickly; he does not. The film follows three men from the same company. Bobby counts as young and can start again. Phil is close to sixty and the market does not want him. Gene is one of the founders; he stands on the side that makes the redundancy decisions and cannot accept it. What interests the film is not unemployment itself but identity: when these men lose their occupations they lose who they are. Bobby going to work in construction with his brother-in-law is the hardest passage. Ben Affleck plays Bobby, Chris Cooper plays Phil and Tommy Lee Jones plays Gene. Kevin Costner plays the brother-in-law. John Wells directed, his first feature after a long career in television. A well-made example for anyone who likes drama about economic crisis and class. For a viewer expecting hard criticism, the film turns towards personal solutions at the end and does not question the system much.