In Good Company, 2004

If you are a bit skeptical about life in general, or happen to feel a bit pissed off with the whole world in general and don't even know why, try watch this movie "In Good Company".

Watch it, and laugh (or giggle, or whatever), because that movie would show you cases, in which others who thought there could be nothing wrong with their lives, suddenly found out that, nothing is really what they seemed to be.

I have always liked Dennis Quaid (doesn't mean that I liked all the movies in which he was in!), perhaps because he is a musician who seemed to have a very good sense of humour & with principle.

In this movie, not only him, but the whole cast was great.

The plot? Hmm, imagined that you were a successful 51 (turned 52) years old saleman, and so sure that everything was OK in your life: a beautiful house with a mortgage, 2 teenagers daughters growing up, 1 of these 2 was in university, your job was OK, everything was under controlled.

or that you were a successful 26 years old saleman. Your life was truly looking up. You kept having one promotion after another because you could always talk your way out of any troubles. You just married to a beautiful girl who came from a wealthy background.

Anything could be wrong from here?

Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) was the boss of his team of sale. Everything was OK in his life. His staff respected and liked him. His customers were all happy with his service. Then suddenly everything seemed to be in chaos: parallel with losing his top position in his company (result from a takeover), he found out that he would be a father again soon; he might be fired any time (& losing his job); his daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson) wanted to change uni, to a better one (which required higher school fees). There was no choice for him, except to take out a second mortgage, and bit his toungue to all the changes in his company.

Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) was the young man who was just got promoted again. From the takeover, he then became Dan Foreman's boss, even though he had no idea how to make thing better for this new company (except to fire staff). He was so happy with the way things looked up for him. He wanted to begin to have kid... But his young and beautiful wife had no intention of becoming a mother that young (or ever). She divorced him soon after that. Carter Duryea suddenly found himself lost.

Carter and Alex got attracted to each other, but knowing how Dan felt about his new boss, the two secretly went out with each other, until Dan found them out.

The movie was full of humorous moments, in a "tongue in cheek" style. It showed the ups and downs of life, of how uncontrollable life and its events could be.

I was impressed with Topher Grace. He was terrific in the role of a saleman, the way he fibbed so well to everyone with a straight face, but for some reasons, he could never lie to Alex (Dan's daughter) or to Dan.

Scarlettt Johansson was very good in playing her role. She looked secretive, innocent, very direct, very simple, never coquettish, always was a good daughter, who knew her own mind. I was very impressed with her acting, "always simple but to the point"! Watching her, I thought of the saying, "Actions speak louder than words", for she expressed lots just by using body language and some facial expressions.

Dan's wife, Ann (Marg Helgenberger) was superb in her role too. It took me a while to figure out where I had seen her. It was CSI, Crime Scene Investigation. (She was the main investigator of the series or so).

A very entertaining movie with lot of depths.