I Guess I’m In Good Company

Since the terms conservative and liberal have come up several times, I decided I would dedicate another blog entry to them. Specifically, I have been trying to figure out whether In Good Company is conservative or liberal. I know it’s one of them, but I’m not quite sure which it is yet. Maybe I will just explain why I think it is either conservative or liberal and let you fill in the rest.

Before I do that, though, let me say that I think this movie is excellent. In fact, I think I would say that it is one of the best drama/comedies that I have seen in a long time. The acting is superb, even from Topher Grace, about whom I was unsure at first. Scarlett Johanssen was as beautiful as ever. Her dad, played by Dennis Quaid, portrayed fatherhood with interest, compassion, and sincerity.

A lot of this good acting is due largely to a great script, full of wonderful dialogue that was witty yet not over the top. I used to love Dawson’s Creek, and now I love Gilmore Girls (I know, I know, I deserve a lot of flak for these loves), because those shows have characters whose dialogue is fun and funny and smart and exciting. But let’s face it: none of use actually talk like that. In Good Company isn’t that way. The characters sound like real people, and they have real problems that everyone seems to go through. It’s tear-provoking and then hilarious, the way real life is.

Perhaps that’s why I have trouble knowing whether it’s liberal or conservative—because portrayals of our lives are not liberal or conservative. I’m actually quite liberal politically, but I look over my blog, and I come across as a freakin’ prude. Maybe I’m both! But that’s the point. In Good Company seems to be both, too, and that makes it compelling.

In order to explain what I mean, I am going to have to spoil the movie for you, at least partially. So if you haven’t seen it, you may want to stop reading.

The main point of the movie is that Topher Grace is a mover and shaker in a sales firm. He is put in charge of sales for a magazine, something that he is probably not ready for, and he is put in way over his head. Dennis Quaid was the boss before him, and now he is made an underling of this twenty-something kid. At the end, though, the kid is fired, and Dennis Quaid is made boss again.

What’s the point here? The old can do it better than the young. That’s a conservative viewpoint, a kind of romanticizing of the old days. Dennis Quaid continually says that they can’t fire his team that has been with him for seven years, even though Topher Grace wants to. For Grace, it’s all about the bottom line, at least at first. Then he realizes that Quaid may be right: maybe these people are good at their jobs. They have families they have to support, and their jobs are their lifeblood. It’s difficult to fire someone when you know their situations, after all. Perhaps companies should not be concerned solely with money. Perhaps there is a human factor here, as well.

But wait! Topher Grace is actually pretty good at his job. Yes, he spends way too much time working and loses his wife because of it, but he’s also a good employee. He may stink as a boss, but it’s only because he demands so much of his employees. And he gets cut in the end, not because he has failed in some way, but because the company is sold and everyone belonging to the last guy is fired.

The company does make fun of the new idea of synergy, as expounded on by both Grace and Teddy K, played by Malcolm McDowell, and Grace’s idea for cellphones for kids is laughable, too, but only because it works. Whereas Quaid does well because he believes in his company, Grace does well because he knows what works, even if it is shallow.

So I guess it comes off on the conservative side. I hope that’s not why I liked it…

Grade for In Good Company: 9