The Company Men (Movie Review)
Battle Mountain Films (Released 2010)
John Wells
USA
Review 3 stars— Good Watching

 How the blurb describes the movie:
The Company Men brings together a group of this generation's greatest actors- all of whom are Academy Award winners. Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck, The Town, Good Will Hunting) is living the American Dream: he has a great job, a big house, a beautiful family and a shiny Porsche in the garage. But when the effects of the Global Financial Crisis leave him a victim of corporate downsizing, Bobby finds himself not wavering, but drowning on the outer at the golf club, baited by his builder brother-in-law (Kevin Costner Dances with Wolves) and well behind on all his repayments. Soon Bobby is joined by former colleagues Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper, American Beauty, Adaptation) and Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones, Men In Black, The Fugitive) and each man reacts to his new situation in a different way. All three are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands, and fathers. With humour, pathos, and keen observation, director John Wells (ER and The West Wing) introduces us to the new reality of American life: that sometimes you have to lose it all to win back hope.

Mr Home Budget's Review:
This is only the second movie review we have done at Mr Home Budget. However, this movie makes a couple of very strong points about how we home budget and spend our money.

While there are three main characters, Bobby who is played by Ben Affleck is the one that makes this movie strike a cord with me. Bobby is an aspirational millionaire; he wants to be thought of as being rich. So he surrounds himself with all the things he believes millionaires must own or do.

He is buying a Porsche with a car loan, has a house which is the size of a small mansion, and plays golf at an exclusive country club. Unfortunately for Bobby, his life is only on loan to him. Bobby really does wear, drive and mortgage his income right up to the hilt. To the outside people looking in, his wealth must seem very high. But once you look at his real savings and wealth, there is very little there for a man of his age.

After the financial crisis hits, his job along with 3000 from his company is let go, and now he has only three months of severance pay to find a new source of income. Bobby not really wanting to face reality, decides not to cut back spending as he is convinced a new high paying job is right around the corner. In fact he even turns down several lower paying jobs, as he believes they are beneath him. However, after 2 months of this, it becomes blatantly obvious no job like his last extremely well-paying one is on the horizon. Any job he can get will not afford his high-spending lifestyle.

Bobby hits rock bottom after he must sell his house (for less than what he paid for it), and move his family back into his parents' house. Plus he must take a job with his not so favourite brother-in-law (Kevin Costner) building houses just to make some salary.

Whilst the whole movie is not about Bobby, it does shed light on a very serious problem happening in the USA and Australia, and a problem which has not really been tackled in movies before. Most people spend right up to their budget; they assume their budget will only go one way "up". On this basis they do car loans, credit cards, interest free loans and home loans with little left over at the end of the month to save or pay extra off debt. Very rarely is there a plan in case their income stops dead overnight. And as you will see in Bobby's case, his income was almost guaranteed to continue as he was one of the company's best workers. But the GFC stopped his job in its tracks.

The movie itself is not going to win any Academy Awards, and yes, it is a bit predictable. However, it does really portray with almost a deep suspense just what could happen if your income went to zero in one foul swoop.

Pros:
Exposes a big problem in 2011, where too many people are living right up to their budgeting limits, with no regard for saving money.
The movie moves along at a nice pace and you don't get bored.

Cons:
The movie is a tad predictable.
Sometimes it was hard to understand what the actors were saying (almost like an audio problem).