Saturday Night Premiere: In Good Company

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Well, there seems to be run on Dennis Quaid movies. Looks like he is just a real busy actor, and he even has a new movie out in theaters now. Why do I say this? Well, last week's Saturday Night Premiere was a movie starring Dennis Quaid, The Flight of The Phoenix, and this week we have another movie starring Dennis Quaid with In Good Company. The two movies come from two definitely ends of the spectrum, but both had their good points. Let's talk about In Good Company, which premiered this weekend on HBO.

Dennis Quaid plays Dan, an advertising salesman and head of his department for a magazine called Sports America. At the beginning, we quickly learn there will be some huge changes at his company, and one of these changes directly affects him. He is demoted, and fresh young blood is brought in. The young man, played by Topher Grace, is half his age, and new to the game. In fact, he doesn't even know all that much about sales, but he jumps in with both feet.

Right around the same time, Dan also learns his oldest daughter wants to attend NYU, and then his wife also throws an unexpected bombshell on him as well. She's pregnant again, and both these things throw a huge monkey wrench into matters. With his demotion, money becomes a little tighter than usual, and he is lucky he even still has a job. Many with salaries lower than him are let go.

This is where another twist comes in. The young man that took over his job starts dating his daughter. At first the relationship is a secret, but Dan does find out, and it causes a small rift. More issues arise with the company side of the things as well.

In its entirety, this movie is a nice little film. It shows something that does happen in the world today. Companies are sending out the old and bringing in the new everyday. The only difference in this movie from today's reality is most of the time you see the older sent into some kind of early retirement. That didn't happen here. Often times though you found the old worked just fine without the addition as well.

I also enjoyed the performances by the three main roles in this movie. Dennis Quaid is always a wonderful actor. He can do both action and family films without even batting an eye. This movie also allows us to see two relatively new acting faces, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johannsson. Both do wonderfully here as well. Both are rising stars at the moment. I'd definitely recommend this movie for a pick-up on DVD or a viewing if you can catch it on cable.