A listing of the best films of 2004 suggests that it was not a great year. There were some good films and great performances, Million Dollar Baby and Kinsey fitting in both categories, but no great films. A film that received many accolades was Sideways, which was an enjoyable film with very good performances from the typically second tier leads, but it was not great or anything. The movie takes awhile to get going and at the heart is about a not too pleasant guy who might be redeemed by the love of a woman perhaps better off not with him. This is a bit trite, was done in a witty manner, but a great film it does not make.
Kinsey also had some flaws, including a somewhat weak final third, and an incomplete feel to the biography. There was a lot of good in the film, and if it wins an Oscar or three, it might even be deserved. Still, not a great film. Similar things might be said about The Woodsman, which should have at least one nomination (Best Actor -- Kevin Bacon). I haven't seen the movie about the Rwanda genocide yet.
Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) is one of those bright, ambitious kids whose drive and weaselly charisma get him promoted into jobs he's not ready for. He's not stupid, but the limits of his experience and his undeveloped instincts are precisely the things that upper management is usually blind to, while underlings feel them all too keenly.
-- Salon review
I had problems of late to find even a good film, as did others, given the high ticket sales of a film like Meet the Fockers. Still, some people who like that sort of thing told me it was pretty funny. And, one should not sneer at a pleasant time at the movies. And, In Good Company is just that, guided by excellent performances from Dennis Quaid (middle-aged executive dealing with some crisises at home and a demotion at work), Topher Grace (young upstart who took his job, but isn't so sure of himself either), and Scarlett Johansson (Quaid's daughter, but catches Topher's eye too).
And, there are several other very good supporting roles for characters actors to shine. Topher Grace (of That Seventies Show) kind of annoys me, so I was not sure about this movie, but it's too amusing, winsome, and just a bit wise to miss. It is the definition of a good movie -- not great, but well worth the time. And, heck, Quaid is just good enough here that a long shot nomination in the Best Actor role is not totally out of the question.
The movie does have a flaw that hurts its chances for superior status -- the time old inability of an American movie to find a totally satisfactory way to conclude matters, perhaps because of a failure of will to take a chance.* Still, Dennis Quaid has a pretty good piece of advice regarding how to succeed at marriage. Find someone you want to share a foxhole with, and when you are out of the foxhole, keep it in the pants. Many a marriage would have survive with less. And, it is an "adult film" in certain ways, but retains its PG-13 status. This too is an accomplishment.
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* Roger Ebert recommends the film, but gives it a mixed review, and probably does so because he doesn't believe in the final third of the plot. This is mostly fair, though he speaks of the film at times as following the line of the usual "corporation as villain" movie without quite explaining that there really aren't too many films that actually do so with the skill of this movie. A movie can be too predictable in some ways, but still be worthwhile, something Ebert himself makes clear.
Perhaps, the idea is that we sometimes expect more out of some films of this caliber? Anyway, the quote from the Salon review appears to me to have some applications to the Bush Administration.