This long-delayed spoof about the "true story" behind the Bay of Pigs was released shortly after Thirteen Days, another movie about a Cuban (missile) crisis. The latter represented something of a comeback for Kevin Costner (after For Love of the Game) and director Roger Donaldson (after Dante's Peak). For Douglas McGrath, who cowrote Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and directed Emma (1996), Company Man represents something of a comedown. First off, it's just not very funny--and becomes even less so during its 81-minute running time. Secondly, McGrath, who has appeared in several Woody Allen films, is simply not charismatic enough to carry a picture--not this one, at any rate. Then there's the matter of a talented supporting cast in the service of material that feels both underwritten and overedited (possibly against the directors' wishes).
To his credit, McGrath is more of a verbal comedian (in over-enunciated Kevin Spacey mold) than a physical one. Consequently, he (grammar teacher-turned-CIA agent Quimp) and Allen (Quimp's superior) get the best lines. The physical gags mostly fall flat. Sigourney Weaver (Quimp's nagging wife), John Turturro (his overzealous partner), and Alan Cumming (deposed leader Batista) are hamstrung by this emphasis on the physical (and one-dimensional). Ultimately, McGrath (and cowriter-director Peter Askin) attempts to align Company Man with nebbish-in-the-middle satires like Allen's Bananas (1971) rather than serious-minded fare like Thirteen Days. He only proves that more time spent working for the Master (Allen)--rather than vice versa--should be in order. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
2.
IN THEATRES: FEBRUARY 16, 2001 (LIMITED)
COMPANY MAN, cowritten and codirected by Douglas McGrath (EMMA) and Peter Askin, is an AUSTIN POWERS meets THE PINK PANTHER screwball farce about the 1959 Cuban revolution. Allen Quimp (McGrath) is a bumbling, gee-whiz high school teacher in 1950s Connecticut who believes grammar instruction is his gift to society. Quimp’s grasping wife, Daisy (Sigourney Weaver), however, has higher aspirations for him. In classic THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT mode, Daisy desires a highly paid husband who can provide a better lifestyle. Desperate to impress her, Quimp pretends to have a secret life as a CIA agent. When Quimp accidentally helps a visiting Russian dancer, Petrov (Ryan Phillipe) defect, the CIA actually does hire him, so they can claim credit. "The Company" ships Quimp off to Havana, Cuba, where Agent Fry (Denis Leary) and Chief Lowther (Woody Allen)--who has some of the film's funniest lines--studiously ignore the impending revolution. However, when Fidel Castro (Anthony LaPaglia) overthrows General Batista (Alan Cumming), the fanatical, chest-bumping Agent Johnson (John Turturro) convinces Quimp to help him assassinate the Cuban dictator. With hilarious performances from Allen and Turturro, COMPANY MAN puts a slapstick, revisionist spin on Castro's rise to power.
3.
Douglas McGrath, John Turturro and Sigourney Weaver lead an all-star cast in this hilarious screwball comedy about a mild-mannered grammar teacher on a top secret mission to end the scourge of socialism…and the slaying of syntax!
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
Movie Database
In Theaters
