So much average

Great Film overall

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This was akin to a religious experience. I could not turn my eyes away. It was unique in the sense that it felt somewhat like a documentary. Yet it was full of delightfully subtle plots that were very engaging. The dance numbers were top notch with beautiful costumes galore. Superb camera work.

Wouldn't you feel elated by its whimsy and its flimsy? Imagine you and your rendezvous, and some sparkling wine afterwards. It could well be a perfect candidate for a first date on the movies, and I think this is something not outside Altman's sensibility, to his credit.The film is made in a flow of quasi-vignettes, and the perennial demand for plot may make us miss the unadorned details that stitch together the larger loomings: James Franco falling on his face in the bowling, while the dancer cannot restrain from performing after a successful shot, may well exemplify why Neve Campbell is interested in him; or how acceptingly she coils in his - sleeping - arms on a failed New Year's Eve, a bit before the big snake of a dance begins. Or how the fact that in the - a bit sleazy - bar she works, she wears a wig - why, we may wonder? I suppose is out of not wanting to get her hair smelly, which is bizarrely touching.Many a reviewer has mentioned that McDowell may be Altman's stand-in, and his self-criticism. I think that James Franco is more subtly so: Altman makes him quite possibly the most charming of them all, exactly because he echoes his very charming, humane restraint in the dancing matter (remember how almost creepily he sits and stares his love for the first time in the bar, while she plays pool, and the balls, almost self-reflexively, like dancers, roll).The rest is a go-with-the-flow bravura performance. The film ends the way it begun, framed by the night-out-for-the-dance: the huge, awkward, anthropomorphic set with its smoking mouth and scary groan read like a hint on the various cannibalistic tendencies scattered throughout, and strikes a deliciously, sweetly menacing and oddball note with the lovers' injuries.The only restraint I would have towards the film is the sense - sometimes - that Altman plays out his virtuosity with a gala ampleness and a somewhat kitschy comfortableness. But at its best, like in the dancing-in-the-storm scene, which is topped by the double, Bach suite scene, it has the sensible urbanity of an Alex Katz painting.

Watching "The Company", I was suddenly aware of how stylistically similar Robert Altman is to one of my other favourite directors, Frederick Wiseman.Wiseman is a documentary filmmaker who typically picks a space or institution as his subject (a high school, a town, a military base, a zoo, a hospital etc), and then sets about filming human beings as they work and interact within these self-contained environments. Wiseman improvises, shoots without a screenplay, is subtly satirical, hires small crews and seems content to simply observe people as they go about their various day-to-day routines within their chosen fields or environments. Altman operates in a similar way. With "The Company" he sets his sights on the Joffrey Ballet Group of Chicago, voyeuristically observing its inhabitants over the course of several months. There is seemingly no overriding narrative, no overt plot, only a series of connective strands, each character existing as a pebble in a vast mosaic.What separates Altman from Wiseman, however, is Altman's acute awareness of genre. Altman enjoys subverting expectations, turning war on its head in "MASH", noir with "The Long Goodbye", deconstructed "Bonnie and Clyde" with "Thieves Like Us", ripped apart the western with "Buffalo Bill" and "Mrs Miller", mauled the murder mystery with "Gosford Park" and pretty much invented the anti-narrative multi-character mosaic (badly imitated by Paul Haggis, Lawrence Kasdan, John Sayles, and Paul Thomas Anderson) with films like "Nashville" or "Short Cuts".With "The Company", the narrative being deconstructed is your usual "star is born" tale ("Showgirls", "Red Shoes", "All About Eve", "Black Swan" etc). Actress Neve Campbell, at first glance, appears to be the heart of the picture. She plays your typical lowly artist stereotype who works hard, hoping for that lucky break which will lead to her starring in the film's final grand performance.But as the film progresses, Altman will continually undermine the genres usual obstacles and clichés. Watch how he sets up Neve's final performance, only to have her fall and be pulled out of the show. Watch how he sets up Neve's argument with her lover, only to have them peacefully fall asleep together. Watch how he sets up a pushy mother who is consistently unable to get a word in. Watch how he sets up a thunderstorm which has no effect on the performance. Watch how he sets up the vindictive father of one ballet dancer, only to have the guy consistently brushed off.Time and time again, conflicts are set up and then undermined. This notion of avoiding conflict, of dodging the act of telling a story, is epitomised in the film by Mr A, the manager of the ballet company (and an obvious stand in for Robert Altman), who leaves the room whenever someone wishes to argue with him. The result is that, not only are conventions subverted, but the very act of storytelling seems avoided.One thus recalls the climax to Altman's "Thieves Like Us", a crime movie which likewise subverted gangster clichés. That film promised us your typical last act, gangster bloodbath, our bank robber heroes dying in slow motion, a hail of bullets peppering their bloody bodies. But when his climactic shootout occurs, Altman pulls the rug out from under our feet and cuts away. In this simple scene, we see how Altman operates. What is usually denied is given precedence; the spaces omitted in "normal" films are given, by Altman, room to breathe.For better or worse, reversals like this - both obvious and subtle - take place constantly throughout Altman's filmography. Enjoyment of his films thus depends on the audience having an intimate awareness of what is being subverted, deconstructed or undermined, which is perhaps why Altman is so despised. Those who like his films tend to like him for what he doesn't do. What he sets up and then rejects.Beyond all this you have the typical self-referential Altman layer. The act of preparing, improvising and putting on a show (ballet), is mirrored to the act of preparing, improvising and creating Altman's film. And of course you need a creative force in both worlds, personified by Mr A (Malcolm McDowell) in the film, Altman's doppelgänger. Such a self-referential layer is typical of Altman. "Nashville", "Buffalo Bill", "MASH", "Gosford Park", "Prairie Home Companion", "The Player", "Cookie's Fortune" etc, all revolve around large groups of people getting together and putting on a performance. What's fresh about "The Company" is the sheer level of restraint.8/10 - Worth two viewings.

This movie is without a doubt the worst movie I've ever seen. It had no visible plot whatsoever. I didn't see anything that even looked like plot lines. It was the most pointless thing that has ever graced the planet. The people didn't speak loudly enough and we had to turn up the volume of the TV even though it made the music far too loud. It could have been done better. The movies 'Centerstage', 'Step Up', and 'Save the Last Dance' are much better depictions of our world. Being a dancer myself, I thought the choreography for this movie could have been a lot better. The dancing was utterly boring. I didn't even bother to watch the whole movie. I was falling asleep the whole time. In my opinion Neve Campbell doesn't measure up to real professionals like Gillian Murphy or Nina Ananiashvili. She's not even close. In conclusion, I think this movie was very poorly made and I would like to see it remade with better sound quality, better acting and better dancing, but above all, there needs to be a better plot because the current one is horrible!!!