Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Saga of Chad, October 8, 2000
Why is Chad so frightening? Because Society is full of Chads. Around every corner there is some version of Chad: a cruel, unscrupulous, good-looking, highly intelligent person along his lines, who will not only NOT get what's coming to him, but through guile, hypocrisy and ruthlessness rise and devour. In addition, elements of Chad exist in almost everyone, male or female, which if given a chance to operate without personal cost, will always tend to assert themselves to RULE and EXPLOIT the weak. In a Hollywood movie Chad would've ended up ruined for his evil deeds while the Hollywood Chads behind the scenes collected a fat profit laughing their heads off at the naivete of the public. In LaButte's Indie film Chad gets it all, beautiful woman, position and sadistic kicks without any personal cost whatever. "In the Company of Men" is not a 'great' film by any means, but an especially important one nevertheless. LaButte and Eckhart's fully realized `white collar' villain commemorates, for easier identification, the readily sensed but rather vague `evil techniques' of countless Chad-type predators throughout society. Future victims of Chads now possess a secret weapon; and not only that, the Chadlike elements present within every person will, for anyone who has seen this film, find it harder to assert themselves without complex and ever more evasive rationalizations.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not for everyone..., March 25, 2003
There's a reason that "In the Company of Men", a low budget independent film, the first from writer-director Neil Labute, won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. The reason is not that it is an enjoyable film, but rather that LaBute demonstrates what so few filmmakers are willing to achieve: that film can be art, and not everybody is supposed to understand or like what you are saying.LaBute captures the self-absorption and resulting cruelty that EVERY alpha male raised in a fraternal corporate environment ever subscribed to - all roled into the unforgettable character of Chad. Using his persuasive skills to get his boss, Howard (Matt Malloy) to go along in this exercise of cruelty, Chad plays the game to the max. Along the way the audience gets the feel for the impersonable, alien corporate environment and good old boy atmosphere so recognizable in the U.S. Chad is portrayed instinctively by young actor Aaron Eckhart, who has traveled with LaBute through this and all subsequent films, sometimes in minor character roles. Eckhart and LaBute obviously have their pacing and teamwork together - Eckhart portrays Chad effortlessly! LaBute should be congratulated for not allowing "the happy ending", instead twisting his conclusion to find yet another villainous side of Chad. The DVD is dark, with few special features, and since almost all of the film takes place indoors (an early LaBute signature), the darkness of the tale is heightened by the appearance of the film. Striking out as a writer/director with a "different voice" (ala John Sayles) LaBute made his mark with "In the Company of Men" - and it is a fascinating study for serious film watchers.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Effectively Nasty, April 13, 1999
By A Customer
Apparently, this film got under a lot of people's skin. Perhaps this film, written and directed by Neil LaBute, about two corporate cowboys who romantically set up a young deaf woman just to cruelly reject her hits too close to home. It's about the way our drives for power and influence, stymied and constrained within institutional boundaries, become corrupted and petty. In a world where there are no values except success and power is its own end, LaBute seems to be saying, friendship and love turn into manipulative tools. And what's truly ghastly about the film (and what makes it such a success), is that the emotional destruction of the woman is a kind of achievement when you see the world in those terms. The denouement is one of the most effective in years simply for the amount of callousness and pain mixed into it. Eckhardt gives a fantastic performance - he's so absolutely repellent, so shallow and mercenary, that you can't look away from him. Stacy Edwards is also very affecting as the deaf woman the two men set up - her sympathetic portrayal belies the claim that the film is misogynistic. LaBute is a bit too one-dimensional in his intentions - these monsters have no dimensions between their pleasure in their own manipulative abilties although Eckhardt's friend does occaissonally submerge himself in remorse. Yet, few films have so successfully penetrated into the psychology of corporate life and its frustrations. "In the Company of Men" is a dark comedy about one man passing his poisioned chalice on to those around him and I wonder if many of this film's detractors found the cup a bit too bitter
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