MOVIE REVIEW

Company, The  (2003)

Starring: Neve Campbell, James Franco
Director: Robert Altman

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

Release Date: 12.25.03

Review Posted: 01.16.04

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara M. Fetters

Beautiful "Company" for Director Altman

You have to admire Robert Altman. In nearly a half-century of filmmaking, the noted director cannot be called out for playing it safe. From “M.A.S.H.” to “McAbe and Mrs. Miller” to “The Long Goodbye” to “Nashville” to “The Player” to “Short Cuts,” Altman is a proven talent willing to take chances and bend the rules. More importantly, he never does the same thing twice, each of his films having that trademark flourish of ingenuity unmistakably the director’s own.

Take his latest, the ballet fable “The Company” featuring Neve Campbell (“Scream”) and the acclaimed Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. As a follow up to “Gosford Park,” a movie that boasted Altman’s fifth Academy Award nomination for directing, it is a 180-degree sideways turn into the unusual. Eschewing the trademark large ensemble and over-arching story structure the director is known for, this is such an intimate portrait of the dancing troupe it could almost be classified as documentary. Unlike most of his pictures, individual performers aren’t given the opportunity to stand out. Instead, it is the collective nature of the artistic medium that is the focus, Altman introducing an almost stream of conscience-like narrative that’s mesmerizing and distant all at the same time.

If there is a story to “The Company,” than I guess it would be about Joffrey dancer Ry (Campbell) and her quest to become a featured performer. She gets her opportunity when the lead female dancer on the pas de deux My Funny Valentine is injured, Ry as her understudy stepping in to do the performance. The thing is, in a typical movie we’d then watch the young dancer slowly climb her way to the top, the replaced woman fume and conspire to win back her position, and the rest of the Joffrey dancers come to grudgingly accept the beautiful and talented Ry over time.

The thing is, this isn’t a usual movie. Instead of that tale, Altman and co-writers Campbell – a former ballet dancer herself – and Barbara Turner (“Pollock”) choose to show the ballet company for what it is; a tribe of dreamers and artists intent on putting ambitious visions onstage for the world to see. They work endless hours, taking immaculate care of their bodies all in their desire to dance. For all their trouble, they get constant budget worries, very little pay and the terrifying knowledge that any moment injury or age could sideline their dreams forever. For most of us, this is a cup of tea worth passing. But for the few that make the choice to sacrifice and live this life, the beauty they bring unto the world is truly sublime.

Campbell, who trained two years with the ballet to get in shape, is – at least to my untrained eye – a marvel as a dancer. Her rendition of the aforementioned My Funny Valentine with Joffrey principal Domingo Rubio against the backdrop of a windy rainstorm is simply gorgeous. The actress’ lean and lithe body seems to melt into her partner, the duo casting a spell of intoxicating elegance. As to her acting, it’s impossible to really comment. While she is the featured player; we see her work a second job as a waitress in a trendy gothic nightclub, romancing chef James Franco (“Spider-Man”) and arguing with her mother; the movie never lingers on her enough to really assess the performance.

In fact, the only actor – and really the only other professional thespian besides Campbell and Franco – given an opportunity to stand out is veteran Malcolm McDowell (“A Clockwork Orange”). Playing the Italian-American (?!) director of the Joffrey Ballet, McDowell is so darn enthusiastic he completely won me over, even if he does throw in a number of British colloquiums into his dialogue. No matter, he’s so forceful, so authoritative, that I nearly started to sit up in my seat at attention every time he came on screen, mimicking the dancers as they in turn sat before him.

It should be noted that “The Company” lives on stage. There are a good ten dances performed, much of the movie’s running time taken up showcasing them. Cinematographer Andrew Dunn (“The Madness of King George”) frames these moments resplendently, letting his camera lie still for long periods and then gracefully weaving in and out of each ballet for a more intimate perspective.

The problem is, all this time onstage leaves little room for story. Granted, as there really isn’t one, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Still, there is a distancing between viewer and movie that’s rather disconcerting. While little intimate moments can’t help but stand out; I especially liked a scene in a cramped apartment between owner and one of her (many) lodgers as she searches for a condom; overall I never got a feel for whom any of these dancers were as individuals. But then, it is the collective tale of the troop Altman is obviously trying to tell, so maybe not knowing is all part of the larger design.

If so, I can’t say I approved. While I felt that tract worked in combat pictures like Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” and (especially) Terence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line,” it doesn’t come off as well here. Yes, I know a season in the life of the Joffrey Dancers – any dance troop, really – is probably much like going to war; each injury, every fundraising dollar misspent or un-raised an opportunity for disaster and ruin; but emotionally it didn’t grab me the same way those others did.

Yet, I can’t say that this stopped me from enjoying the picture. If anything, I adored much about “The Company,” completely captivated by its lyrically visual spell. That’s why I’m tempted to classify it more as documentary than as feature film, Altman achieving elegance behind the camera every bit as profound and moving as the ballets being performed by the dancers. It’s a light, airy motion picture that flows nimbly from scene to scene, producing a dream-like spell over the audience impossible to escape.

Like great art, “The Company” is unpredictable and daring, an original work indicative of a master intent on flexing his creative muscles. And even if it doesn’t operate quite as well as the director hopes, at least it takes chances and conveys the audience on a journey they might never have experienced, otherwise. Even if Altman and his picture hits some lumps, the movie is still a ravishing waltz, as one-of-a-kind as the filmmaker once again dancing to his own tune.

Rating: êêê  (out of 4)

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