COMPANY BUSINESS
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
COMPANY BUSINESS is a film directed and written by Nicholas Meyer and produced by Steven-Charles Jaffe. It stars Gene Hackman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Kurtwood Smith. Rated PG-13 for language and some violence.
COMPANY BUSINESS describes itself as a "post-cold war thriller." Half true insofar as it is indeed set in the post-cold war environment, but it hardly thrills. It is a pleasant entertainment, nicely photographed, competently acted, with some touches of satire and humor; but for one thing events in the real world, such as it is, have so far outstripped the script as to make it an historical curiosity and not the terribly au courant statement of this particular brave new world. For another, the story is complicated and the complications take too long to be set up in the beginning. The story and the characters are also curiously uninvolving, sans loyalties, sans countries, sans any vision except getting out.
It has some individual moments. The subway sequence, for example, is as close to thrilling as the movie gets. The ironic performances of Hackman and Baryshnikov are charming, if not exactly engrossing. I think, by the way, that this might be the first time I've seen Misha in a film in which he did no dancing at all. The film's observations of the difficulties of certain types to adjusting to this new world provide the most interest and could have developed into a true political satire. Instead, Meyers retreated to the less risky ground of Spy-Vs-Spy. Loss of nerve, I call it.
Some of you might enjoy this film at matinee prices, but in general I really cannot recommend it except as a cheap, future rental.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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