Company Man is a highly underrated Woody Allen historical comedy.
Jeffrey Jones plays the straight shooting, no nonsense Senator who served in WW2. He wants answers from the head of the CIA about the "Bay of Pigs" incident and is angry about a heavily redacted document that only mentions "Officer Quimp". Jeffrey Jones and Paul Guilfoyle [CIA agent] do a great back and forth that is full of tension and intrigue. The cinematography in this movie is impressive from shot #1.
Officer Quimp is played by Douglas McGrath. He is an obsessive, spaced out and goofy Grammar teacher turned CIA spy. The character is played well and is very comical. [In the above scene, he is overly excited to be in a "secret session"]. Officer Quimp is the classic "my dreams are more important than my real life" character. He is the quintessential oddball/space cadet.
Officer Quimp's wife is played by Sigourney Weaver. She is a delusional, spoiled woman with a rich father. Above, she is complaining about having to be sitting in the "poor section" of the restaurant. There are lots of funny sight gags in this movie. The movie is very visual. Almost on the level of a circus act in some scenes.
Terry Beaver has a very funny cameo as Officer Quimp's father in law. "You need to get your piece of the pie before somebody subdivides it. You have fallen asleep under the back wheel of the Cadillac of life. Get a nine to five, three martini, six figure job like every other man in Connecticut by the end of the month or I will get in my Cadillac and back up over you."
Ryan Phillippe plays a Russian ballet dancer who wishes to defect to the United states. The accent is a bit suspect, but he does a good job playing someone who is in a panic. Officer Quimp helps him escape from his KGB handler and this is how he ends up being recruited by the CIA.
Company Man has one of my favorite Woody Allen roles. The character he plays in this movie is very funny. He plays a flakey, oddball CIA agent who is in charge of the Cuban division. He is in complete denial of the rumours behind the oncoming revolution. "We are going to set up a dummy corporation. You are going to be the head of it. It will be called American fruit, perfect for you."
I found a clip of the "grammer nazi" scene with Officer Quimp and Agent X [Dennis Leary]. It's very funny and shows how clever the writing and acting is in this movie. Of course, the idea that this would really lead to a confession in real life is silly, but there are many suspensions of disbelief in this film.
John Turturro plays another CIA member who is a freedom fighter against Castro. He breaks into Officer Quimp's house to frantically tell him about the coming revolution. This scene is fairly corny and overacted [John Turturro's character cuts his own wrist to prove he is serious about his plan]. This scene isn't very funny.
We are also introduced to the President of Cuba. This character is very odd and doesn't have many lines. I get the feeling that they might be trying to say he is gay? Or at least very lavish and spoiled. It's a confusing character. Not very funny.
Anthony LaPaglia plays Fidel Castro. The movie shows the strange reported assignation attempts. Dosing him on acid, exploding cigars, drops of poison etc.
Overall I would give this movie a 7/10. There are some painfully unfunny scenes, but the cinematography is excellent, it's a great historical critique on several levels, the writing is funny and it has great acting from Woody Allen. The movie in general is an all star cast. If you like a complex, dry humor with lots of moving parts and suspension of disbelief, it's a perfect movie for you.
