DIRECTED BY: Neil LaBute
STARRING: Aaron Eckhart, Matt Malloy and Stacy Edwards
BUDGET: $0.025m
EARNED (Worldwide): $2.8m
AWARDS: None
Two business executives set out to exact revenge on the female gender by seeking out the most innocent, uncorrupted girl they can find and ruining her life.
To kick off the 365 Films list is a film, In the Company of Men, that may contain one of the most cruel, manipulative men that’ll appear on this list. That man, Chad, a complete sociopath, forms a revenge scheme against the female gender with his colleague Howard, to find an innocent, insecure woman, both of them romance her simultaneously, and then break up with her at the same time while they’re assigned to a branch office away from their home for several weeks. Then one day at the office, Chad comes across the perfect woman for the game in Christine, a co-worker that is deaf and even wears headphones so that people believe she’s just listening to music and treat her normally rather than immediately making them aware that she’s deaf. There’s a sub-plot of things not getting delivered back to the home office and you don’t pay much attention to it at first but it does become somewhat important in the final act of the film.
The premise is simple and intriguing, as worst of it is everyone will know men like Chad and Howard, with Chad the instigator, Howard content enough to tag along even though he has more of a moral compass on the game at hand. The dialogue is sharp, focusing on the game and the ‘Alpha Male’ persona in a corporate work place. Stacy Edwards is subtle in the role of Christine, a woman that gains a resurgence of confidence by believing she is winning the affections of two men, while Matt Molloy is good as Howard, a man low an his own self-esteem and joining the game in order to gain his own self confidence but the main player that took this film to another level for me was Aaron Eckhart as Chad. Eckhart is terrific as the narcisstic Chad, a man that’s only in it for the game, but playing several angles to hurt as many people around him and why? Because he can.
FAVOURITE SCENE: The moment Christine reveals to Chad that she’s aware of ‘The Game’ and gradually see the mask fall off Chad’s face as he tries to talk his way out of it then proceeds to throw the mask off and reveal his true self.
FAVOURITE QUOTE: “Just remember, I can’t hear you when you’re lying.” – Christine
DID YOU KNOW?: Premiere voted this film as one of ‘The 25 Most Dangerous Movies’.
Irish Cinephile 