“The Company Men” was originally slated for a Christmas Day release. That was before the studio began reading critical feedback and quickly moved it to mid-January, and trickled out the openings in midsize cities like Colorado Springs through February. It’s not that the film is bad. It’s not, and neither, I’m fairly certain, was most of the feedback.

It’s just so darn depressing. This is 2011’s “Pursuit of Happyness.”

The men in “The Company Men” are Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck), Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) and Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones). All are employed by the same global conglomerate and all have been handsomely rewarded for their years of work. If there is such a thing as the American dream, they are living it.

Then the ax falls, and one by one their corporate heads roll. In an age when shareholders are more important than employees, market forces will always trump moral obligations. Victims of downsizing in a sputtering economy, each of the men assumes new work will be easy to find, only to confront the demoralizing reality of incessant unemployment, the sort of soul-consuming depression that corrodes a person’s self-worth and makes it impossible to look one’s spouse and children in the eye.

“The Company Men” takes the stories you see every day on the nightly news and puts some dramatic music to them. This is not a movie of our time so much as it is a movie for our time. It is, to be entirely truthful, discouraging to the core. We either are these men or know these men. Like them, we are forced to suddenly consider our own ostentatious lifestyles. Like them, we are forced to quash our egos and, as is the case here, reconceptualize what it means to be men.

Like them, we are forced to wade through the inevitable family discord and the camaraderie of congenial losers to reinvent ourselves with quintessential American pluck and determination.

In some ways, “The Company Men” is reminiscent of the great Italian neo-realist classic “The Bicycle Thief,” about a man who tries desperately to salvage his livelihood while still keeping hold of his ever-evaporating dignity.

The film marks John Wells’ (creator of “ER”) feature-film debut. It is a smart, keenly observed and, when it needs to be, humorous look at our current reality. Best, it knows when to let its fine actors talk (Affleck continues his impressive cinematic rehabilitation) and when to shut up. “The Company Men” is dramatic not because it’s particularly exciting, but because it is so relatable. Its Achilles’ heel is that it is perhaps too topical. If you are one of those who go to the movies to escape reality, this is not the film for you.

details

THE COMPANY MEN

Cast: Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt

Director: John Wells

Rated: R (for language and brief nudity)

Running Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Photo by