Search - :: In Good Company

Writer/director Paul Weitz' comic fable rises above its Hollywood generation-gap formula (older worker Dennis Quaid finds himself in a tense relationship with half-his-age new boss Topher Grace--who's also dating Quaid daughter Scarlett Johansson) with a graceful humanity lacking in similar mainstream fare. That warm sensibility is also capably underscored by an inviting slate of pop songs and the evocative original cues of Hedwig and the Angry Inch collaborator Stephen Trask. While there are the handful of expected oldies (Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools, "the debut hits "Reeling in the Years" and "Solsbury Hill" by Steely Dan and Peter Gabriel, respectively), the collection's atmosphere is largely set by a trio of introspective acoustic ballads by Iron & Wine, the similarly toned "Soundtrack of Our Lives" by Ten Years Ahead and David Byrne's, evocative, minimalist ode to the metro mundane, "Glass, Concrete and Steel." Jazz chanteuse Diana Krall contributes a seductively smoky "Besame Mucho" while Trask's percussion-seasoned underscore subtly fuses it all together into a contemporary whole with masterful understatement. -- Jerry McCulley