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In the Company of Men
****
Cinema
Releases - January 30, 1998
Rated on a 4-star
scale. Canada. Written and directed by Neil LaBute. Starring Aaron Eckhart,
Stacy Edwards, Matt Malloy, Mark Rector, Emily Cline.
What exactly is it supposed to take for someone
to go to hell? Is it be evil deeds, or the sadism in evil deeds? If we ignorantly
commit evil acts, are we evil? Did Hitler, a human embodiment of evil, know
what he was doing was evil? And if not, is it possible that he is not
in hell?
These are disturbing questions. Just as disturbing
was the character of Chad in Neil LaBute's "In the Company of
Men". Even if we answer yes to the above question of hell, and we
accept that a man whose deeds were as evil as Hitler's may not be in hell,
Chad is still destined for the fiery place. No, his deeds are not as bad.
But his soul is much worse.
By now, you're thinking that I'm talking rubbish,
that I've exaggerated. See "In the Company of Men". A description of Chad
may unsettle you, but may still leave you unprepared for the real thing.
Despite the fact that you probably know guys like him.
"In the Company of Men" takes place in the modern
corporate environment. Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and his buddy Howard (Matt Malloy)
are on an assignment in an out-of-town company office for six weeks. Waiting
for their flight they talk of how they are tired of rejections by women,
their women's attitudes towards them, their women's treatment of them. Chad,
whose manner in out-of-work conversation is that of someone forever telling
a joke, concocts a scheme to humiliate a woman. He convinces Howard that
it will be something they can always fall back on and laugh about, no matter
how badly women hurt them. Howard agrees, intrigued, but even if he wasn't
interested he may have agreed -- he's too weak to easily say no to his
friend.
The two do not plan to do something funny at all,
though. They do not want to teach a lesson to a woman who thinks she's queen
of the world. Their plot is more sinister. They will both woo a woman who
has obviously given up on steady (if any) dating ("The more deformed the
better," Chad proposes), seduce her, make her feel special. They will then
dump her and leave town. Chad sounds real enthusiastic. "Trust me, she'll
be reaching for the sleeping pills within a week!"
The pair's chosen victim is Christine (Stacy Edwards),
a deaf secretary in the office building they will work in during the trip.
Christine is pleasant, a brilliant typist, pretty, with a beautiful smile.
She speaks fine, too, but Chad relishes the affected notes of her voice,
making jokes about it for three or four non-stop minutes, at first forgivably,
then crueller and crueller until the audience is pushed ad nauseam. "Pathetic
retard... she's got one of those voices like Flipper!", he carries on and
on.
We never find out much about the actual details
of Christine's personality, or what makes her tick. We do know that she must
be an interesting person, though, because Howard falls in love with her,
and at one point even Chad reveals that he almost has a soft spot
for her.
It is obvious why Christine likes Howard. He does
seem quite sincere. His nervousness seems like a character aspect to Christine,
rather than the fact he is anxious about the plot being put into practice.
To us, it is hard to know why she doesn't see through Chad, he has such an
obvious phoney appearance. But then we realise that the giveaway is in his
tone of voice, which, of course, she can't hear. The lips she reads are that
of a very handsome man who is ready to spend time with her, flatter her,
send her flowers and laugh with her mother. She can't believe her luck, and
she's not about to question its authenticity.
When the deception is revealed she literally doesn't
believe it, and screams the thought off. When it is confirmed, LaBute lets
the camera stay on her and on her and on her, so alone. Feel the
pain.
The real strength of the film is its skill in
creating Chad. For the most part of the film, he just seems like a cruel
misogynist who likes to show off his macho detachment to sensitivity, but
his last scene with Christine reveals how brutal he is. His last scene with
Howard shoves pure evil in our face with a terrifying, horrifying, sickening
twist that is absolutely unbelievable. It takes a mask off of Chad, the mask
that makes him look human -- which he couldn't be.
Aaron Eckhart makes Chad his own very well,
successfully conveying the man's charming exterior as a cold deception. The
final revelation of evil does not seem phoney under this actor. Matt Malloy
is also convincing as Howard. His body language is so right, as a man who
begins to feel more and more uneasy with his best friend. I have no idea
if Stacy Edwards, the actress who plays Christine, is deaf or not, but she
plays the disability convincingly and also manages to gain our sympathy for
more important reasons.
The director's own screenplay is wound up tightly
for reasons already hinted at, but it also captures the atmosphere of the
modern workplace without becoming obsessed with it. We never find out exactly
what kind of company Chad and Howard work for, but it seems real
nonetheless.
The cinematography, full of dark blues and greys,
captures the metallic feeling of the scenery. The thumping music is at first
used to make the film energetic, but finally changes in its effect -- pounding
at us, ringing in our ears, making sure we cannot forget -- as if we could!
The editing draws us in with strange curiosity before the shattering
finale.
LaBute's film is not easy to watch, deal with
or understand. But its effect is unmistakable. As his drums still bang at
us, far out of the cinema, we realise what kind of amazing cinematic power
LaBute has, and hopefully will use again. "In the Company of Men" is one
of those movies which reminds us what cinematic power is.
COPYRIGHT© 1998 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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