Director John Wells (ER) takes us back in time - maybe a year ago - with this story. We're introduced to Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) an upper-middle-class sales and marketing exec with the requisite mortgage, two kids and wife. All's well in Bobby World until he's caught up in a corporate downsizing that furloughs about half the company.
Suddenly the universe doesn't make sense. No job. No money. No status. And ultimately, no home of his own. Before he can say WTF, the Walker clan goes from a two-story colonial in a nice neighborhood to moving back in with Bobby's parents. As we say down in Texas: S*** Gets Real, y'all.
He's not alone. Just about everyone he knows is either laid off or just one missed note payment away from bankruptcy. Bobby's former boss, Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones,) isn't happy with the layoffs either and tries to intervene. He's a rich guy with a heart who thinks he can persuade the CEO (Craig T. Nelson) to cut costs by doing something OTHER than reducing head count. Before you know it, his head's on the chopping block and he's sipping scotch on the veranda at 9:30 a.m.
Mean ol' CEO Craig T. Nelson isn't totally heartless. In addition to three month's severance, everybody gets free outplacement services (Bobby's entry into the world of outplacement is so realistic it'll make you squirm). He shouts the positive affirmations....calls everyone he knows...suffers the indignities of bad interviews and still NO JOB.
Since nothing's going his way, brother in law Kevin Costner comes through with a construction job to help him regain his sanity and sense of self worth. It's back-breaking labor and painfully obvious that Bobby's not cut out for carpentry.
He knows it's going to take a lot of work to crawl his way back to the two-story colonial he took for granted. Turns out, he's right. The road back home isn't an arrow-straight six-lane Interstate, but rather a crooked two-lane black top full of potholes.
The Company Men is never preachy or predictable. It reminds us that a job (or the lack of one) doesn't define us and that it's even possible to lose something and find yourself.