In Good Company (2005): looking back at a review from a transitional season in my life
In Good Company — the new comedy from Paul Weitz, director of About a Boy — is a comedy set against the backdrop of today’s Smackdown-oriented business world.
Re-reading this review, I struggle to avoid cringing. I see the evidence that I was still heavily influenced by a toxic mix of right-wing politics and religious fundamentalism, forces that wanted me to believe in and proselytize for a legalistic, fear-driven monoculture. While I still advocate for the teaching of ethics in business, I now see the prescriptive and judgmental nature I had absorbed from the fundamentalism of my evangelical context. Here, in 2026, I have made some slight revisions to this review to dial down what I now recognize as a tone of condescension and sanctimony, and a fear-based scornfulness about sexuality. I want to preserve, for archival purposes, and to be honest about my history, what I wrote — but I also want to minimize the harm that such words can cause.
At the same time, I’m amused to find that I was already — in January 2005! — pointing to the TV series The Apprentice as a sign of that America was infected with a toxic view of success. Little did any of us know that Trump’s TV show was one of the tumors that would soon metastasize, and that’s why these not-so-United States of America are on life support today, the body politic so toxic with greed, prejudice, and misogyny that it is rejecting its own immune system. I was half-awake, with so much more to learn.
“Another way of doing business.” That was the slogan on the top of a recent newspaper ad for a university business program. What does that mean? What is this “other way”? Further investigation reveals that the school’s faculty claim to teach more than mere skills or savvy — they teach business ethics.
Shouldn’t that be a given? It isn’t. Many business school instructors might ask, “Ethics? What’s the point of talking about ethics in business classes? Business is about success at all costs. It’s about making money. If you want to get ahead, ethics are a luxury you can’t afford.” And that’s exactly why the headlines are full of stories about corporate executives scrambling to cover their criminal tracks. People who read the newspapers are beginning to think that “dog-eat-dog” is “business as usual.”
In Good Company — the new comedy from Paul Weitz, director of About a Boy — is a comedy set against the backdrop of today’s Smackdown-oriented business world. In that context of dehumanizing pressures, an old-fashioned businessman named Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) and a young up-and-comer face named Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) are put to the test. They’re challenged to re-examine their values and their goals, both in the office and at home. In the era of Enron, Martha Stewart, and other corporate scandals, here’s a movie that knows Good Business involves Good Ethics. But it also knows that true success requires a healthy balance between business and family commitments.