by MARK SLUTSKY

You might call In Good Company Hollywood's first real comedy about globalization. And for what it's worth, the movie treads ground your standard laff-fest doesn't dare go near, and does it thoughtfully.

This is a slow comedy, one with an admirable focus on developing fleshed-out, uncartoonish characters. That's a description you could also apply to director Paul Weitz's last film About a Boy (he's also responsible, along with his brother Chris, for the first American Pie movie). Unfortunately, In Good Company doesn't quite achieve the flow and poignancy of About a Boy - it's a little too slow, and not really funny enough. But Weitz wrings some very good performances out of his stars, and the film scores points for tackling 21st-century business culture in a somewhat new way.

Dennis Quaid stars as Dan Foreman, a solid middle-aged family man and ad exec for a popular magazine very reminiscent of Sports Illustrated. When the magazine's parent company is acquired by a multinational corporation, Dan finds himself demoted, with a kid half his age now occupying his old office. That kid would be the oddly-named Carter Duryea (Topher Grace), a business-jargon-spouting, middle-management suck-up. Much to his surprise, Dan becomes an unlikely mentor to the lonely Carter, who longs for the older man's stability, family life and, as it turns out, his daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson), whom he promptly starts to date.

This premise could have easily led to a lot of lame gags, but instead In Good Company actually takes it easy on the obvious laughs, instead focusing on the awkward relationship between the two men. While Grace's character could've been portrayed as a straight-up villain, he's actually a much more sympathetic, confused character than that, and Quaid's slow transition from antipathy to something resembling affection is nice to watch. As is the movie's acknowledgment of the bizarro world of corporate mergers and buyouts, like when Dan loses longtime clients due to power plays that take place half the world away. By the end, however, the film sort of peters out, and the script falls apart. Not perfect, but an interesting failure nonetheless.

In Good Company opens Friday, Jan. 14

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