‘In Good Company’ bittersweet comedy

In theaters

IN GOOD COMPANY, written and directed by Paul Weitz, 110 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new drama “In Good Company” is being marketed as a comedy, which it isn’t, at least not in the conventional sense.

The film does make you smile, but it’s a bittersweet, knowing smile, one that has been introduced to the disappointments of life – and survived them.

In that way, the movie recalls Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” which also co-starred Scarlett Johansson as a young woman who changed men’s lives.

Following suit, “In Good Company” has plenty to say about youth, middle age and relationships, but it’s played too seriously to be considered a comedy. From writer and director Paul Weitz (“American Pie,” “About a Boy”), the

film follows Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid), a 51-year-old ad executive facing a midlife crisis when life suddenly decides to have its way with him.

The sports magazine at which Dan has worked for years is sold to a conglomerate eager to downsize; his new boss, Carter (Topher Grace), is a 26-year-old naif who knows nothing about the ad world but plenty about corporate buzzwords such as “synergy”; his wife, Ann (Marg Helgenberger), has recently announced that she’s pregnant, just when Dan might be in danger of losing his job; and his daughter, Alex (Johansson), is behaving in ways that skate very close to betrayal.

It’s all a mess, and one that could have become a soap opera if Weitz hadn’t written such a grounded script. True, parts of “Company” are canned and none of it is especially new, but what it does right it does very right. Its focus is on relationships, specifically Dan’s relationships with Carter, Alex and Ann, and another crucial relationship that would spoil the story if it were revealed here. Safe to say that its addition complicates the movie considerably.

With “Company” coming on the heels of the comedic action thriller “Flight of the Phoenix,” the second film in as many months to star Quaid in the lead, it offers a rare opportunity to reconsider Quaid, who has been acting in films for nearly 30 years. What you realize is how versatile and underrated he is, even when the material lets him down, as it does in “Phoenix.” In a way, he’s not unlike Harrison Ford. The raw, boyish charm that lifted his early career is still intact, but age has deepened him into someone more interesting and compelling. Nice when that happens. Better when it fits as well as this.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

THE FORGOTTEN, directed by Joseph Ruben, written by Gerald Di Pego, 91 minutes, rated PG-13.

Choosing a title for a movie is crucial yet tricky business. For instance, should you decide to call your movie about a sweet-natured, bovine-loving girl “Cow Patty,” you certainly don’t want it to smell like one to audiences. I mean, imagine the headlines should “Cow Patty” be a stinker.

Such is the case with “The Forgotten,” a dumb movie about a handful of dead children who are mysteriously forgotten by most of their parents. What nobody attached to this beauty likely wanted is the sort of negative word of mouth that found audiences saying, “Forget it,” to their friends. But that didn’t stop them. “The Forgotten” stands tall as one of last year’s lamest, most ill-conceived movies.

In it, the fine actress Julianne Moore proves she can be rather abominable given the wrong part. Here, she is Telly Paretta, a grieving mother of dead son Sam (Christopher Kovaleski), who is told by her psychiatrist, Dr. Munce (Gary Sinise), and her husband, Jim (Anthony Edwards), that she never had a child. He’s just a manifestation of her warped psyche.

Tenacious Telly believes otherwise, which leads her to Ash (Dominic West), a former professional hockey player who turned to drink after the death of his daughter, which he somehow forgot. After some rather embarrassing, emotional histrionics from Ash, he remembers his daughter and soon both he and Telly are on the case, which in this case means they’re on the run from a band of creepy, dark-suited evildoers out to undo them.

And, my, do they all run. In this movie, people do more running than anyone in “Chariots of Fire” and “Forrest Gump” combined. They run through the streets of Manhattan, they run over bridges, they run through hell and back, and they even run through exploding glass windows without once getting cut by the flying debris.

More astonishing is what Telly and Ash are running toward – the truth – which won’t be revealed here. When the vague, murky conclusion hits, the letdown is as colossal as Alfre Woodard’s wig. Woodard plays a detective in “The Forgotten,” and while she’s the best part of the movie, my feeling is that she will probably want to join the rest of the cast in pretending that all of this will live up to its title in ways that are indeed forgotten.

Grade: D-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.