Frustrated

After a disappointing day I went to the cinema for refuge. Since I chose to see The Company Men, it's pretty clear I wasn't looking for mindless escape. The story of multiple families being affected by corporate downsizing, this isn't thrill ride entertainment. But I've been looking forward to seeing this film for awhile and it was very good.

Not sure how many people will go out and see this movie, but there are millions of Americans who can relate to the story. The movie is smart enough to focus on men at different stages of their careers being cast off by their employer. What the film shows very well, is that we as Americans not only identify ourselves with our jobs, but no matter how much money we make, we're all living paycheck to paycheck. And with that knowledge, we have to discover who we truly are and become who we want to be.

Refreshingly, the movie offered two very strong female characters. They had sense, drive, success, and caring. I get so frustrated with movies that always write women in as an afterthought. This movie was a pleasant exception. It's all shot in and around Boston, and there's a very strong regional feel to the movie. I caught a few of the colloquial jokes that went silent in the San Diego theatre. Still, I think the movie has wide appeal. It falls apart a bit in the last reel and ties up everything with a Hollywood bow, that was a bit of a copout. But the content leading you there is certainly worth it. If you're looking to explore dissatisfaction, anger, delusion, crushing economic fear, self realization, this is a good one, and it has a few laughs along the way.

Now, The Company Men is rooted in the Fall of 2008 when our economy collapsed. Here it is in theatres, just of 2 years later. Since our company is still stuck in the morass it is still quite relevant. But it probably won't make as much money as it could have if it were released a year and a half ago.

On the other hand, take a movie like The International. This is one of the best thrillers in recent memory. It's an absorbing, engrossing, enraging story that gets better at every turn. But this came out right in the middle of the economic meltdown, and because it had a global bank as its antagonist it was marketed as a condemnation of the banking system. That trailer is not what this movie is, not by a longshot. The movie didn't make much money, because too many people thought they were going to see Clive Owen blow away a bunch of bonus-clutching Goldman Sachs analysts. Instead they saw this intricate conspiracy story and felt they were duped and didn't recommend it. When it came out I remember countless boneheaded critics complaining that the film didn't go far enough to address the banking crisis. Idiocy. Any movie is written two years (or far, far more) before it comes out. There was no banking crisis when The International was released. But there were certainly plenty of banks (and still are) that are financing despotic governments and selling arms. So if this movie came out today, I think there'd be a more receptive audience and it would earn more at the box office. If you haven't yet, see it.

And now one final point, which is somehow related to my inadvertent discussion of film marketing. Our country is still in a complete mess. There is no recovery. Are things better than they were a year ago? Yes. Two years ago? Yes. But absolutely nothing is solved and I see absolutely no evidence that there is any hope for a true recovery. I think this is the new, declining America. Just last night the President spoke about the need for unity and collaboration. And not even 12 hours later the Senate Majority leader goes on national television and adamantly refuses to even consider reducing earmarks. He didn't say earmarks would still persist because of the system. He said he would make sure that earmarks persist because that is the Legislature's right and that the President was overstepping his bounds and trying to usurp more power for himself. That is not a good sign. These guys are in the same party! There's no reconciliation or unity coming any time soon.

People in this country are angry. And there are no leaders any more. There is no voice of reason. And that is why we will slip off our precipice as world leader. Other countries are growing, China, India. We are deteriorating. We do need to invest in new strategies to maintain our hegemony in the world, but we can't even agree on that. Everyone is clutching to yesterday, ignoring the present, and damning the future.

Our government failed us at its moment of opportunity, the banking crisis. AIG was not too big to fail. Neither were any of the banks. If those giants were allowed to fail, there would have been far greater damage in the short term to our economy. But we would have opened up the markets to competition, and therefore witnessed the actual intention of capitalism--for the invisible hand to strike down failing business practices and enable more efficient businesses to triumph. Instead, the government succumbed to corporate interests, ignored the basic principles of Adam Smith's theory and nationalized these industries so that they could go on bleeding the country dry. If that program worked, how come we still have 10% unemployment in this country while the Dow almost reached 12,000 yesterday. It should be the banks and the insurance companies that are scuffling, they caused this. But aside from changing offices and business cards, they're doing just fine.

I won't go on. But I did get to avoid my own personal problems for a little bit. See, the movies really do provide an escape. Which kind just depends on what you see.