In the Company of Men

***1/2 Stars

Erupting with interpersonal depravity, soaked with the obscurity of its villainous male leads, and painfully upfront with personal lives without written consent, In the Company of Men is a cultural study of humanistic evil without the physical appearance of its socially-accepted representative.

Writer and director Neil LaBute unleashes a remarkably disturbing exercise into three characters that are forced to embody the origins of the film’s screenplay: “Let’s hurt somebody” he mentions in an interview about his directorial debut, claiming that this line of dialogue was used in creating the story. “I was attracted to the notion of premeditated agony inflicted on someone. I believe that you can kill characters only once, but you can hurt them every day.”

Labute explores this notion of hurt within the simplicity of In the Company of Men’s setting: airport terminals, office buildings, hotel rooms, and bathroom stalls (pretty much any standard location for corporate workers in the business world). The story surrounds two typical businessmen who may seem completely formulaic from an outside perspective, but both kindle with alarming personalities. Chad (a brutally evil Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (Matt Malloy) are victims of the commonly induced male frustration known as heartbreak. The audience is told that both have been dumped by their girlfriends and are ready for some payback. The very first line of dialogue in the film is spoken by Chad (who meets Howard one night in an airport terminal.) “So how do you feel?” he asks Howard, referring to the loss of his marriage. As Chad’s game evolves, this quote is the final nail on the coffin in the matter of unveiling the gender expectations of relationships in culture-at-large.

When the two dive in with their plans to “hurt” Christine (played by Stacy Edwards) we are graced with Labute’s strong stand against playing reaction with reaction. Because Labute avoids the lazy route of monotonic viciousness towards Christine (he actually uses her physical handicap to her advantage), a much deeper and longer lasting impact suffices. We are left with an endless pattern of manipulation and cruelty that sends a message to the ways genders are expected to play in cultural and social situations. The message? That there is no specific expectation set-and-stone anywhere that justifies the acts of anyone. LaBute, in his interview, states that “The film gives a punch at the end that some people are taken aback by: the expectation is to make him or her feel that the world is not right. We live in a 'cause and effect’ world."

So rather than Chad, Howard, or Christine being the chess players moving the pieces, they are merely ponds of a system, one that breaks the rules for its own personal gain and ultimately leaves its occupants blind to the necessities of human morality. How can we have any hope for these characters when we know all three are doomed from the start?

Maybe that is why Labute leaves it all up to the dialogue. Sadly, In the Company of Men, though onslaught with its auteur-like ferocity, displays the endless everyday situations that should never be defined as “everyday situations.” They are in fact as surreal as they get. The film is disguised as truth, where if one falls for its trick, they may use the actions of Chad as a justification for their own behavior. And for most of the time, in the world of these characters, the greatest cruelty lies in both the simple and complex tool of communication.

In perhaps the most unsettling scene in the film, Chad, playing with his executive privileges, forces a young intern to take off his pants and convince him that he has “the balls” to tackle a management training program. The fact that these characters are reduced to the literal translation of one of their gender-ridden metaphors for strength is quite possibly one of the lowest moralities of human nature ever displayed on film. Trapped inside this inhospitable environment, the only rationalization for these characters and their actions seem to lie in the bizarre and pointless obsession with job security.

While picking out seeds of truth, LaBute’s efforts cross a rather cruel irony. The actions taken by every character in every scene of In the Company of Men have no progression towards the maturity of emotional growth, but the uncanny performances of Eckhart, Malloy, and Edwards remind us that these incidents may be occurring at any given place at any given time. Therefore, while we are merely witnessing caricatures in society who reek of standardized kitsch, LaBute leaves us whimpering with questions and ignoring the presence of answers all together. In today’s society, that description of people may deem plausible. The Chads of this world are out there somewhere. You may have known one. I know I have.

To label Chad and Howard’s decision to begin this rather unorthodox love triangle as evil is a bit premature, but the actions taken throughout the narrative (including Christine’s decision to date both of them at the same time) both disgust and baffle my senses. I will never permit anyone’s behavior if their initial intention is lined under the notion “Let’s hurt somebody” to get to the self-absorbed assertion of “So, how does it feel?” In the journey between the two, we are left with an endless cycle of expectations that are profoundly mistaken when in the company of such an absolute evil. In the Company of Men hits you were it hurts and never lets up. It will shake you to a core you didn’t even know you had.