In Good Company

I'm not really a Hugh Grant fan, but I loved About A Boy. Maybe it was that I recognized a little of myself in Grant's character, or that I enjoyed the book and felt like the adaptation to the screen was handled well, but after seeing In Good Company, I realized why I liked About A Boy so much. Paul Weitz, who directed both movies (and co-wrote the screenplays with his brother Chris), got a stellar performance out of Grant. Yes, Hugh played to type, but his character was a believeable person rather than the usual foppish caricature he usually plays.

The reason I came to this realization is that Weitz gets the same type of performance from two of his stars in In Good Company. Both Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid play characters they've played before, Grace the awkward, unsure youngster, and Quaid the everyman American father figure. But there is something in their performances here that feels more real. You feel Quaid's uncertainty, pain and stress over his change in status at work, and Grace's nervousness at work and need for meaningful relationships outside of it rings true with anyone who's ever felt that way. Coupled with excellent supporting performances from Scarlett Johansson and Marg Helgenberg, and a great anti-corporate merger message (that seemed suspiciously familiar to me, having worked for Time Warner during the AOL debacle), this makes for a great movie. I'm curious to see what the next project is for the Weitzes.

One side note: Memo to the people who put together movie soundtracks: Unless your name is Cameron Crowe, there needs to be a moratorium on downbeat Peter Gabriel tunes. I thought the soundtrack was pretty solid for this movie, but when the opening strains of "Solsbury Hill" kicked in during another wander-the-streets-and-rethink-my-direction-in-life scene, I got a bad taste in my mouth. It's a great song, but overuse has depleted any power it once had for scenes like that.