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The movie “In Good Company” is a feel good family movie about a family who has to deal with downsizing, layoffs, pregnancy at middle age, a college teen, and a young boss taking over for a middle aged guy but deals with them functionally as opposed to dysfunctional!

It is the story about an ad company bought by another company that makes organizational changes which affect the lives of the people involved. The employees’ boss Dan Foreman (played by Dennis Quaid) who used to oversee the ads operations get demoted and has to work under Carter Dureya (played by Topher Grace), his new boss who is half his age . They have to deal with work issues with each other and family issues outside of work! What makes this arrangement stickier is that Dureya has fallen for Foreman's daughter Alex Foreman (played by Scarlett Johansson) both of whom have a secret relationship until Foreman unexpectedly finds out. The story revolves around all these issues and makes people who are watching ponder things in their own lives.

Content Review:

This is an excellent movie to watch with anyone and addresses important issues such as love, humility, self-sacrifice, premarital sex, dangers of emphasizing work over family, young v.s old, downsizing, layoffs, and courtship.

Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, and Scarlett Johansson give exceptional performances! This is a movie that you can watch over and over!

It is rated PG-13 for some thematic elements.

Spiritual Implications:

In the movie, ‘In Good Company’ we see Alex Foreman who loves his family very much and is involved in the lives of his family. In one scene, he sees a pregnancy test in the garbage and gets concerned. He goes to his daughters’ room and asks her about their pact they made! She agrees and goes to sleep.

This reminded me of a Bible verse from Ephesians that deals with the relationship between children and their parents and Corinthians 13 that deals with what true love is.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:1-4, NIV)

^“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13)

There is a scene where two people are let go at once but it is amazing how differently both of them act towards Dureya. It reminded me of how one person did things biblically and another person did it unbiblically.

^“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.” (Titus 3:1-2, NIV)

Their family is together even through the trials and tribulations of daily life. This really makes Dureya who is half Foreman's age wonder how he does it while his own marriage was falling apart. Foreman tells him his marriage is together because they do not mess around but are loyal to each other.

Jesus replied. "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female. ''For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." “You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.” (Mark 10:6-9, 19, NIV)

It is amazing how in humility a person who used to be the manager of a company decides to stay at his job and work for someone half his age without giving him problems. That shows a lot of maturity and character.

It is also awesome the amount of sacrifice this family has made for their children especially to see Alex go to NYU.

^“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3-4, NIV)

“Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5, NIV)

In one scene of the movie, Foreman is very concerned about Alex whether she has remained abstinent or not. This reminded me of how much the Bible emphasizes how wrong sexual immorality is whether it is sex before marriage, adultery, etc.

^“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20, NIV)

We learn from the movie that one person loves his job but the other person loves the money that comes from the job. The person who loves his job and family is more successful than the person who just loves to get ahead and make money.

Questions to Ponder:

If you had a job that paid a lot of money but you were not happy with the job and your family life, would you keep that job for the money or look for a job you love to do? Why or why not?
If you were a boss of the company and had to let people go, how would you decide who to let go? How would you approach the situation?
Why do you think some people’s marriage lasts forever and others break up?
What is love to you?
Why is abstinence better than sex before marriage?
How would you react to working under someone younger than you?
How should parents react to children who disappoint them?