In the world of sexual manners
In and Out
In the Company of Men
There is no bigger threat to comedy than having to
watch every word and every nuance for fear of offending
political correctness.
So it was with a sense of relief when I visited the
cinema recently to review In and Out, and found it to
be both politically correct and funny.
Set in the fictional Mid-West small town of Greenleaf,
it is about how the life of Howard (Kevin Kline), the
English teacher in the local high school, is thrown
into chaos when one of his former pupils clumsily calls
his sexuality into question while appearing on TV.
Howard becomes the victim of a media frenzy on the week
that he is due to marry.
Dealing with malice towards gay people is too often
confrontational, but ``In and Out'' is more about comic
misunderstanding than with hatred.
A funny film worth seeing.
By Marcas Mac Ruairí
In the Company of Men is one of those films which
triggers a flood of feature pieces in the Lifestyle
sections of weekend newspapers and glossy magazines.
Two thirty-something men on the lower rungs of the
corporate ladder are sent to a branch office to
complete a six week project. They are tired and not a
little bitter at their lot. Younger men are threatening
to bypass them for promotion and their girlfriends have
left them.
On their first night in town they hatch a plan to find
a woman unused to relationships; both of them will go
out with her, shower her with gifts and flatter her,
then dump her at the end of the six weeks. ``She'll be
reaching for the sleeping pills within a week, and
we'll laugh about this until we're very old men,'' says
Chad to the more reluctant Howard.
The dog-eat-dog culture of young, male executives
merges into the painful-to-watch exploitation of a
young deaf woman. The woman-hating Chad is played
superbly by Aaron Eckhart. What at first seems an
unlikely scenario - ``Let's hurt someone,'' says Chad as
their plan is hatched - becomes utterly believable as
Chad's unsavoury character is revealed.
This is men behaving very badly. It is an excellent
exposition of misogyny and an indictment of the culture
within capitalist firms. And it moves with a pace that
always keeps the audience engaged. See it if you can.
By Brian Campbell
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