Weekly Review -- Misogynists without boundaries

In the Company of Men (1997) -- It is only on occasion that we see a movie which turns our whole notion of humanity upside down, no matter what this notion may be. Certain movies dare not only to question the often volatile human psyche, but also to rip it out, split it open and parade the corpse before a crowd of repulsed yet fascinated spectators. Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men is one of these rarities. 

Two nondescript executives, aggressive Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and passive Howard (Matt Malloy), decide that they are over the female population, after having been spurned one too many times. For the sake of good old fun, they concoct a plan to toy with a random woman's feelings and self-worth, settling upon deaf secretary Christine (Stacy Edwards). Everything changes when one of them starts falling in love... 

To say that the writing is darkly bitter would be the understatement of the decade. The words cut, bruise, wound and slap, never letting up and never showing the slightest hint of mercy. LaBute displays his trademark misanthropy wrapped up in localized anti-feminism, satirizing the two principal characters through their own ignorance, while tossing the objectified Christine from one chauvinist to another, like raw meat about to be ravaged by two famished wolves. Eckhart provokes rightful aversion as Chad, a misogynist, racist and overall coldblooded imbecile masquerading as a person. The character's jokes are vulgar and his method is ruthless; Eckhart draws a flawless portrait of a murderer who does not have to kill in order to annihilate another human being. As Howard, Malloy brings a degree of vague altruism to the scheme, while Edwards incites sympathy as a bright and caring woman caught up in the cruelest of games. 

The only aspect of the movie that I did not find convincing was LaBute's subtle counter-argument about Christine's intentions. It seems that, no matter how capable LaBute is of mocking his male characters' prejudice, he is twice as capable of putting his female characters under a microscope. In this case, he balances Christine's dating routine with the men's deception, when the latter tips the scales without a shred of doubt. Even though he uses this element as a convenient excuse for the men, it still lingers from one scene to the next, as if to dissuade us of the woman's complete innocence. Certainly, Christine is aware of both Chad and Howard, just as both of them are aware of her; however, she is not the one with a plan. She is not the one who has mapped out a terrain to divide and conquer and she is not the one out to destroy an individual who may choose to share a piece of themselves with her. This aspect is left disturbingly ambiguous at best within the narrative context. If LaBute had planned to make viewers think even for a second about Christine as a possible agent provocateur for the men's machinations, he has overridden any potential for that thought with every line Chad utters, equating the dilemma to an awkward silence. 

Other than this gripe, I found the movie to be one of the best written films of the 1990s. It is a frightening tale of meticulous sadism and a cautionary tale of corporate sterility. The ending is brilliantly executed and the chronological order of events only contributes to a voyeuristic sense of witnessing a cold, calculated experiment in progress. Ladies and not-so-gentle-men, welcome to the lab.
 
9/10