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The Company

  • 20032003
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 52m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
6.6K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
The Company (2003)
Trailer
Play trailer2:00
2 Videos
94 Photos
  • Drama
  • Music
  • Romance

Ensemble drama centered around a group of ballet dancers, with a focus on one young dancer who's poised to become a principal performer.Ensemble drama centered around a group of ballet dancers, with a focus on one young dancer who's poised to become a principal performer.Ensemble drama centered around a group of ballet dancers, with a focus on one young dancer who's poised to become a principal performer.

IMDb RATING
6.2/10
6.6K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Robert Altman
  • Writers
    • Neve Campbell(story)
    • Barbara Turner(story)
  • Stars
    • Neve Campbell
    • James Franco
    • Malcolm McDowell
Top credits
  • Director
    • Robert Altman
  • Writers
    • Neve Campbell(story)
    • Barbara Turner(story)
  • Stars
    • Neve Campbell
    • James Franco
    • Malcolm McDowell
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 130User reviews
    • 88Critic reviews
    • 73Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 nominations

    Videos2

    The Company
    Trailer 2:00
    The Company
    The Company
    Trailer 1:57
    The Company

    Photos94

    Neve Campbell in The Company (2003)
    Neve Campbell in The Company (2003)
    Neve Campbell and Malcolm McDowell in The Company (2003)
    The Joffrey Ballet
    Neve Campbell and Domingo Rubio in The Company (2003)
    Emily Patterson in The Company (2003)
    Jennifer Goodman in The Company (2003)
    Malcolm McDowell in The Company (2003)
    Neve Campbell in The Company (2003)
    Malcolm McDowell in The Company (2003)
    Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, and Domingo Rubio in The Company (2003)
    Neve Campbell and James Franco in The Company (2003)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Neve Campbell
    Neve Campbell
    • Loretta 'Ry' Ryanas Loretta 'Ry' Ryan
    James Franco
    James Franco
    • Joshas Josh
    Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell
    • Alberto Antonellias Alberto Antonelli
    Barbara E. Robertson
    Barbara E. Robertson
    • Harrietas Harriet
    William Dick
    William Dick
    • Edouardas Edouard
    Susie Cusack
    Susie Cusack
    • Susieas Susie
    Marilyn Dodds Frank
    • Mrs. Ryanas Mrs. Ryan
    John Lordan
    • Mr. Ryanas Mr. Ryan
    Mariann Mayberry
    Mariann Mayberry
    • Stepmotheras Stepmother
    Roderick Peeples
    Roderick Peeples
    • Stepfatheras Stepfather
    Yasen Peyankov
    Yasen Peyankov
    • Justin's Mentoras Justin's Mentor
    Davis C. Robertson
    • Alec - Joffrey Danceras Alec - Joffrey Dancer
    • (as Davis Robertson)
    Deborah Dawn
    • Deborah - Joffrey Danceras Deborah - Joffrey Dancer
    John Gluckman
    • John - Joffrey Danceras John - Joffrey Dancer
    David Gombert
    • Justin - Joffrey Danceras Justin - Joffrey Dancer
    Suzanne L. Prisco
    • Suzanne - Joffrey Danceras Suzanne - Joffrey Dancer
    Domingo Rubio
    • Domingo - Joffrey Danceras Domingo - Joffrey Dancer
    Emily Patterson
    Emily Patterson
    • Noel - Joffrey Danceras Noel - Joffrey Dancer
    • Director
      • Robert Altman
    • Writers
      • Neve Campbell(story)
      • Barbara Turner(story) (screenplay)
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    An inside look at the world of ballet. With the complete cooperation of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Altman follows the stories of the dancers, whose professional and personal lives grow impossibly close, as they cope with the demands of a life in the ballet. Campbell plays a gifted but conflicted company member on the verge of becoming a principal dancer at a fictional Chicago troupe, with McDowell the company's co-founder and artistic director, considered one of America's most exciting choreographers. Franco plays Campbell's boyfriend and one of the few characters not involved in the world of dance. —Andrea Barney <andrea808@hotmail..com>
    • snapped achilles trendon
    • female nudity
    • nudity
    • chicago illinois
    • kennedy center for the performing arts
    • 104 more
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Genres
      • Drama
      • Music
      • Romance
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated PG-13 on appeal for brief strong language, some nudity and sexual content
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Neve Campbell lost thousands of dollars of her own money to ensure that her fellow cast members received their wages.
    • Goofs
      At about 1:10 while counting during a rehearsal, Harriet skips the 6th count of 8.
    • Quotes

      Alberto Antonelli: Ry, honey, let's scramble some ideas, instead of some asshole who contradicts me.

    • Crazy credits
      The title is not shown until the end of the opening credits.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Cheaper by the Dozen/The Company/Calendar Girls/Big Fish/The Fog of War (2003)
    • Soundtracks
      Tensile Involvement
      Music created for synthesize by Alwin Nikolais

      Courtesy of ProArts International

    User reviews130

    Review
    Top review
    Generic drama of dance by the numbers
    The Company is far below the level of Robert Altman's best efforts. In contrast with Gosford Park's endlessly fascinating chatter weaving an intricate web of intrigues and secrets, there's much stretching and dancing, but very little delving into the backgrounds or relationships of the principals. There's hardly what you could call a plot. There are only a few strong characters. All you really get to hold things together somehow or provide some sense of continuity is a series of things that go wrong:

    (1) Among the many dance `numbers,' the one that stands out is the first, an outdoor performance featuring the Hollywood actress Neve Campbell (Scream 1,2, and 3, Wild Things), a trained dancer and the force behind the making of the whole film. A thunderstorm comes to buffet the audience and the dancers. The dancers bravely go on and the dance -- so we're told, anyway -- is a triumph. The entire sequence is dominated by a sense of impending disaster. A slippery stage could have meant serious injury. One also wonders about damage to valuable string instruments being played in the open to accompany the dance. All this is extremely distracting and excruciating to watch. Altman does succeed though in giving us a sense of what performances are like from the company's point of view -- struggles with physical problems; successful efforts (at best) to avert disaster.

    (2) An injury forces a new lead dancer to give up a role. This happens twice. We realize that dancers constantly face injury, or, as often, are dangerously in denial that they have one.

    (3) Another sort of injury prevents a dancer from performing the whole of a `number.' This happens to Neve Campbell at the end of the movie. It's just an arm injury, so not career-threatening, but enough to require a quick replacement by a stand-in.

    (4) A young man is replaced, but only for the latter part of a dance he's in -- because his energy seems to flag at that point in the performance. This nonetheless results in a terribly bruised ego for the young man and his union rep promises to lodge a formal protest. We get a sense of the constant threats to the ego in such an arbitrarily run system, along with the surprising news that union redress may be available in such cases.

    (5) One of the guys in the company takes a new girlfriend. This time again it's Neve Campbell who's the `injured' one, and at a post-performance celebration she delivers an `I was the last to know' speech to the bad boy. I saw nods of agreement from dancerly-looking audience members during this moment.

    (6) The aging female lead dancer - she's 43 - repeatedly protests about too-challenging new dances and refuses to make changes in the choreography of old ones. This potentially interesting, possibly tragic, theme of aging in what is really one of the world's most demanding sports is, however, only briefly touched on.

    (7) An argument occurs between the director and one dancer, who hates choreography of a dance he's in, in which men wearing skirts `give birth' -- and the director instantly reverses what he said about how to perform this moment the day before. The director is adamant, the dancer has lost his cool, and the conversation breaks down. He frequently ends unsatisfactory conversations by dismissing his interlocutor. The director's rule is autocratic and rarely challenged. However the company does get mild revenge toward the end in a mock restaging of the season's events at a party.

    All this adds up to something so generic and uninteresting as emotional truth or human experience that you are deeply grateful when at least the main dancer character, Neve Campbell, gets hooked up with a cook boyfriend, the intriguing James Franco. You're thankful for one young male movie star in the piece, because the real dancer `actors' - as usual - have very little presence or ability as actors. All James Franco gets to do is smile, kiss the girl, take off his shirt, and break some eggs. He does these things with lots of charm and charisma, but these are just crumbs tossed to us. The point however seems to be that dancers don't have time for much more than quick sex; it's like smoking a cigarette, something squeezed in.

    Altman's casts are usually heavy with talent. This time there are only three leads, Campbell, McDowell, and Franco. Ironically only the least used, Franco, has any real appeal.

    Ms. Campbell is little more than bustling and workmanlike. She has a few minutes with her pushy stage mother that provide some sense of relationships outside the company, but it's not enough.

    You will have a lot of trouble with this movie if you don't like Malcolm McDowell. As the `Italian' company director Alberto Altonelli, he is brusque, bossy, obtrusive -- really just a flaming a**hole with a lot of power to abuse. Is this how dance companies work? Where's the genius? Why does young Franco have more charisma and sex appeal? And what's this about a ceremony in which the blatantly English McDowell gets an award for `honoring the Italian-American community'? Okay; let's pretend that he's Italian. But do we have to pretend he has no English accent? If that weren't bad enough, his little speech about not discouraging their sons from becoming ballet dancers is jarring and crude, like all his speeches: it's the height of ingratitude, and you wonder how anyone so undiplomatic could get money for his company. Is it just possible that McDowell is a jarring and crude actor? His performance is wooden and unsubtle. All he has to qualify for this role is forcefulness. Granted, he has that. But his scenes are nothing but irritations.

    This is, at best, a generic treatment of an American ballet company. But it fails even on that level. How come none of the male dancers, not one, is shown to be gay? Isn't that a bit unrealistic about the culture of dance? Why the pretense that they're all straight, vying to have sex with the female dancers in the company?

    Neve's partner after their triumph in the rain has a private improv session unwinding to a Bach solo cello suite. It's rather fun - and would have worked better if it had been allowed to run by itself and not been constantly intercut with the scene of Neve in her apartment - a huge Hollywood-style creation right by the `El' with a glam bath. The improvised Bach session makes you realize that Flash Dance was better than this. There was another movie about a dance company, featuring real dancers again, that was better than this. It had a bit more plot, and perhaps better dances; the people seemed a tad more real as people - and yet it wasn't a great movie. Altman's film has spectacular dance sequences at the beginning and the end but they're just staging, not great dance, and they're window dressing to cover up the emptiness of the whole production.

    If you love dance and/or Altman you'll doubtless have to see this picture, but you won't be watching a particularly memorable ballet movie or getting Altman even at his average level.
    helpful•13
    11
    • Chris Knipp
    • Feb 4, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 7, 2004 (United Kingdom)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Germany
      • United Kingdom
    • Official sites
      • Metropolitan Films (France)
      • Official Production Notes
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Kumpanya
    • Filming locations
      • Chicago, Illinois, USA
    • Production companies
      • Sony Pictures Classics
      • Capitol Films
      • CP Medien AG
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $15,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,283,914
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $93,776
      • Dec 28, 2003
    • Gross worldwide
      • $6,415,017
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 52 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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