My kingdom for a movie where Maria Bello’s sole purpose isn’t ultimately to sleep with some notable actor. Unfortunately The Company Men is not that movie. It has a couple of great actors: Chris Cooper, who gives it all he has, and Tommy Lee Jones, who mainly sits around and emotes existential ennui even when he is in bed with Maria Bello–oh you poor thing, let me weep for you. Jones could not pick up that check fast enough. The only time the screen sizzles is when he has to have a power dance off against Craig T. Nelson in his real life role as a guy who looks out for number one. Have you seen Up In The Air, In Good Company or Falling Down? If you answered yes, then skip The Company Men and watch August: Osage County. Hollywood does not have what it takes to make a truly arresting film that confronts the psychological damage endured by those who are economic victims of a corporate world that they once believed in. Once again, the gender norms are enforced-men face the crisis and other than one good woman, the rest of the women are blood-sucking/money hungry leeches, screechers or assistants. How WILL the men provide for their family and all their material needs? What DOES distinguish The Company Men is the fairy tale that at least if you work nobly with your hands, you will be immune to such suffering and be a real man after an honest day’s work. Rousseau’s noble savage called. He wants you to know that he does not exist, but he has an address where you can send the check anyway. Apparently the writers never knew construction workers in the winter, or those construction workers didn’t have bad backs. For those who promised me that Ben Affleck did an amazing job as a formerly blue collar Massachusetts native now city slicker well-dressed Porsche driving family man, I only have to reply, oh yes, I see how he really had to stretch for that role. He even failed in the end with his fake thick Boston accent at the end of the film. What was that? No accent, but after working a couple of construction jobs, now he is a Bostonian man of the people. He is the shaky leg on a three-legged stool. Stick to directing and writing. The Company Men promises much, but delivers little. Skip it.