The Company Men
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: January 21, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDec 6, 2010
Kevin Costner, as Bobby's carpenter brother-in-law, does the finest character acting of his career. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid DenbyDec 13, 2010
When The Company Men stays with its real business -- the calamity of joblessness -- it is first rate. [20 & 27 Dec. 2010, p.145]
90
MovielineStephanie ZacharekDec 10, 2010
The Company Men is infinitely more despairing and yet also, paradoxically, more hopeful. It suggests that work can actually mean something to people, beyond just giving them the means to afford a nice house or a fantastic car. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenDec 9, 2010
The movie is realistic enough to make all corporate climbers, but especially men over 50, quake in their boots. If you are what you do, what are you if you're no longer doing it? Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedDec 7, 2010
Enhanced by superb writing and direction and nuanced performances by an ensemble of great actors, and enough take-home food for thought to keep the mind and senses totally focused from start to finish, The Company Men is pretty damn close to as good as it gets in a disappointing year at the movies. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 20, 2011
That's not a pretty story, of course. But it's a compelling one and, thanks to Wells and a cast that includes Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper, an entertaining one. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJan 20, 2011
This potent, entirely honorable drama by veteran TV dramatist John Wells actually delivers the goods, pondering the pain and dislocation of the new normal. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineRichard MoweJan 14, 2011
Films have punctured The American Dream before, but rarely so devastatingly as The Company Men does. Read full review
80
TimeRichard CorlissDec 13, 2010
John Wells's The Company Men is a juicy, judicious drama, and one of the few current movies to address an issue that affects many of the people who will see it - or, because reality is too depressing, avoid it. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliJan 20, 2011
Solid performances, and a sincere faith in the dignity of the average working stiff, save it from getting too preachy. Read full review
75
USA TodayScott BowlesJan 20, 2011
It's simple stuff, but the movie's heart is in the right place. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 20, 2011
The result is, like its characters, a good and decent film in a world that rather heartlessly demands more. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJan 20, 2011
Though not blessed with a cinematic eye, Wells is a gifted storyteller who gets nuanced performances from most of his actors. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJan 19, 2011
Although the actors are convincing and the film well-crafted, The Company Men delivers few satisfactory character portraits because the movie isn't really about characters, it's about economic units. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 21, 2010
Wells is a wonder with actors - Cooper and Jones earn top honors - and a filmmaker with an instinct for the emotions that bleed between the lines. This haunting movie hits you hard and right where you live. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickDec 10, 2010
The extremely well-acted The Company Men ends on a hopeful note, but Wells examines the repercussions of a layoff-based economy with devastating precision. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayDec 9, 2010
The cast doesn't treat The Company Men like a slideshow. They take something overly schematic and imbue it with real anxiety, shame, and humility. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJan 20, 2011
A lot of this is compelling, after its didactic and heavily thematic fashion, but if you strip most of it away, along with Roger Deakins' handsome cinematography, you're left with the conflict between Jack and Bobby and something like "Shop Class as Soulcraft: The Movie." Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 10, 2010
The Company Men recalls 1946's great post-World War II drama "The Best Years of Our Lives," and the reason isn't simply its trio of protagonists. Read full review
70
Village VoiceKarina LongworthDec 7, 2010
The Company Men is maybe best understood as a chick flick about dicks: Before its too-easy conclusion, the movie offers a multifaceted glimpse at what can happen when the connective tissue between a man and his source of income is cut, and rarely suggests that it could be anything less than excruciating to stop the bleeding. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 22, 2010
Despite the all-too-harrowing familiarity of these scenes, they seem more like illustrations than dramatizations of trauma. Read full review
65
NPRBob MondelloDec 10, 2010
When it comes to the emotional state of those being laid off, of their families and even of those doing the laying off, it gets things right enough to make audiences squirm. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonFeb 3, 2011
As a drama about coping with hard times, The Company Men doesn't come close to being as sharp or entertaining as "Up in the Air" - which starred Wells' "ER" associate George Clooney. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJan 26, 2011
This isn't "Up in the Air," and we're not dealing with this awful event on a metaphysical level. But there's truth in between the cliches. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJan 20, 2011
The film remains relatively entertaining, simply because the scenario hits so close to home, no matter where you work. Read full review
60
EmpireJames WhiteMar 7, 2011
Wells knows how to extract the goods from a great cast, but it's in service of a somewhat mundane story. Still, it'll make you think about the imbalance in the business world, even if the arguments and consequences are nothing all that revolutionary. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensJan 22, 2011
If only the results weren't so respectably dull. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthyDec 8, 2010
The pain feels cushioned and secondhand, the characters are not terribly sympathetic or interesting other than for their misfortune, and the film shows little interest in analyzing the situation other than to point fingers at greedy CEOs. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 7, 2010
A quintet of actors carve out a beautiful, ill-fated geometry in John Wells's layoff drama, which might play like a retort to "Up in the Air" if it didn't have shortcomings of its own. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyFeb 10, 2011
Has its heart someplace worthy. But its head -- not so much. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJan 21, 2011
The film itself struggles to do justice to each victim. Turns out three stories are two too many. The Company Men should have been downsized. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMichael PhillipsDec 9, 2010
I'd like to think the earnest sentiments and machine-tooled dramatic complications of Wells' script could find a receptive audience in late 2010. I'd like to think, too, that the mess we're in demands a gutsier script. Good cast, though. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 9, 2010
For all his years doing "E.R." and other top-line TV series, Mr. Wells hasn't yet tailored his techniques to the big screen. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesFeb 3, 2011
There's nothing that feels like real rage, nothing that even remotely approximates the spiritual decimation of a termination. Read full review
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