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# ‘In Good Company’ has that and more
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/in-good-company-has-that-and-more/
- Published: 2004-12-31T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:55:18.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Paul Weitz, who teamed with his brother Chris to direct “American Pie” and “About a Boy,” makes a very impressive solo debut with the incisive comedy “In Good Company,” about the unlikely relationship between two men whose personal and professional lives collide. Dennis Quaid brings just the right mix of grit and vulnerability to the part of Dan Foreman, a pragmatic 51-year-old sports magazine ad salesman from the old school of doing business. At the film’s outset, Dan learns his wife (“CSI’s Marg Helgenberger) is pregnant and that his 18-year-old daughter, Alex, (Scarlett Johansson) has decided to attend NYU. In short, his wallet is about to get a whole lot lighter. Though concerned Dan screws on a smile and assures the family that, as always, they’ll manage just fine. Meanwhile, 26-year-old Carter Duryea (Topher Grace), a hotshot exec at an unfeeling multi-national conglomerate called Globecom, gets word he’s being groomed to head up ad sales at the company’s latest takeover, “Sports America” magazine. Carter’s so jacked about this “awesome” opportunity that he promptly goes out and buys himself a shiny new Porsche to park next to his pretty new wife (Selma Blair, in a very brief appearance). The car and the marriage are wrecked shortly thereafter, and it becomes clear that in spite of his promising career and MBA swagger, Carter’s really just a lonely kid.

As you might expect, Dan’s none to happy about being demoted to make room for an inexperienced boss half his age, but the developments at home leave him little choice but to suck it up and move into a smaller office. Carter is zealous to impress his bottom-line-obsessed superiors, but woefully unprepared to lead the veteran staff suddenly in his charge. So he turns to Dan for help, promptly inviting himself over to the Foreman’s for dinner. When he meets the bright and pretty Alex, sparks fly, and his already sticky relationship with Dan gets a thick coating of Crazy Glue. The three leads do what it is they’ve routinely done on screen — easily win us over. Grace, especially, takes what might have been an unsympathetic character and instills him with a sweetness that makes it all but impossible not to pull for him. Weitz, directing from his own screenplay, has proven to be a keen expositor of the human condition, and here leads us down several divergent paths that ultimately connect for a very satisfying conclusion. (Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and drug references. Running time: 109 minutes)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/123104-12_01.jpg)

Grace, of “That 70s Show” fame, stars as a lost corporate executive in “In Good Company.” (Photo: Photo courtesy Topher)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 31, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/123104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)