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SYNOPSIS:
Breckin Meyer stars as Ted, a good guy with a loving wife, great kids and a solid job with a computer software company. But when Ted is promoted to middle management, his new boss introduces him to a life of cutting corners, constant travel and the illicit pleasures of beautiful prostitutes. What happens when a family man whose MBA stands for "Many Brief Affairs" has to pick up the pieces of a world's that's crashing down around him?
MOVIE
REVIEW
There’s this running joke in writer/director Dan Cohen’s new movie “Corporate Affairs”- to show that people at the management level talk a different language compared to the other workers in the company, whenever someone from management starts speaking, they go “Blah blah blah...” Unfortunately, you can also say the same about this rambling affair of a movie.
This is the story of Ted Meyers (Breckin Meyer), a computer programmer (or “Eraserhead” as the IT geeks in his company are often referred to) who gets an unexpected promotion to management level courtesy of his company’s founder no less. But being part of management also means having to travel around city to city, away from family and alone in a hotel room. So what’s the lonely man going to do except take up his immediate boss’ Ted (Adam Scott)’s advice- call up ‘Executive Services’ for some companionship and charge it to the company’s credit card?
Hey, if the perk’s there, why not use it? I’m sure many will agree with this philosophy, though probably not in the ‘Executive Services’ way. But Ted is also a man of conscience, so when he discovers a glitch in his company’s machines, he’s not about to take it lying down the usual way his management colleagues do. Alas “Corporate Affairs” can’t decide whether it wants to be a satire of corporate life, a sexual comedy, or a musing on personal responsibility in the working world.
What it ends up being instead is a half-hearted effort at trying to be something of each, which sadly leaves its viewer in the lurch. Yes, neither the divide between management or worker, or the puzzlingly quirky social escorts Ted meets on his working trips, or the message about standing up for what you think is right will resonate with you.
More frustrating is writer/director Cohen’s slack pacing in this movie. Many scenes drag on for far too long and does nothing more than induce a yawn from its viewer. Even if this were a low-budget effort, it is no excuse for the lazy camerawork and editing that seems to go on interminably throughout the movie. One can only guess that the movie probably worked its own soporific effect on the crew as well.
The ever so slight Breckin Meyer also makes for a less than engaging lead. At least in Garfield, he had a lively, bouncing CGI-ed orange cat to distract audiences from his bland performance. Here his uninteresting performance becomes even more distinct. Even his more energetic co-stars Laura Harris (from TV’s Dead like Me) and Adam Scott also can’t save this movie from being the lifeless object it is.
Indeed, you’re best off leaving this Affair alone. For many, or perhaps most, of us, work is dreary and tedious enough without having this similarly monotonous drag remind us that it is so.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Only a Trailer which contains almost gives the whole movie away so avoid it if you’re serious about checking this movie out.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The picture is decent enough for a DVD and the Dolby 2.0 audio is also sufficient for a mostly talky picture.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
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