Wow, you really believe in this stuff don't you?
Yeah, why else would I do it?

In Good Company made me very introspective. This is a sign of a good movie, I was invested enough in what was going on in to think about my own life through the morality preseted in the film. This is dangerous ground though - lots of times movies that drift off into this area get preachy and forced. I didn't have that problem this time.

Sure, the whole third act is a little unbelievable. Yeah, some parts are forced in order to make the plot do what it needs to do. But those are side issues for me. My favorite part of this movie is Dennis Quaid's character and his family. His family is remarkably functional, the daughter even makes a good joke about it: "My life is so boring, the curse of coming from a functional family."

We mostly see extreme or dysfunctional characters in movies because, well, they're easy to build stories around. The key to this movie is there is only one extreme or dysfunctional character - and he's not that bad. Just a guy who's responsibility has outpaced his wisdom. He hasn't learned yet that experience in an area is inherently valuable and newly learned skills just don't have the same punch.

I hope Hollywood has the courage to make more functional characters. As a society we're so invested in movies, but those movies rarely offer us realistic role models for people we'd like to become. Sure, they offer inspirational stories and cautionary tales. But I walked out of In Good Company thinking that Dennis Quaid's character is a valid role model - I could deal with becoming who he was, and it's realistic for that to happen to me. It's rare that I can say that about movie characters. Let's see more of it in the future.

Morality aside. The movie is also quite funny and smart (except for the events of the third act.) A good time to be had by all.

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