* * 1/2 (out of 4)
"What's the difference between a woman's g-spot and a golfball? I'll spend twenty minutes trying to find a golfball!" Chad, In the Company of Men
The main character of Neil LaBute's blistering and savage satire of corporate one-upmanship and sexual conquest is a handsome, blonde, square jawed yuppie named Chad - a frustratingly blank slate, all company slogans and obnoxious jokes demeaning women, reducing them to either cattle, whores, snakes or commodities to digest and casually toss into the breeze. That's Chad.
An argument could be created that people like this "Chad" could not possibly exist. After all, he's completely inhuman in his treatment of his fellow characters, insulting waitresses who don't make drinks the way he likes them, or casually cutting down his office co-workers with a brisk smile and a clap on the back. He's the Anti-Christ, and no one can touch him. He's insurmountably evil and he'll rip you limb from limb, cracking wiseacre comments all the while.
After he's done twisting the knife in your guts, he'll gleefully ask you, in all honesty, to tell him how it feels. "I'm really curious!" he'll chuckle. "No, really, all kidding aside - how did it feel when I shoved that knife in your guts and twisted it around, then poured salt on it? I mean, I'm interested - I really wanna know."
The Game's Afoot
In a series of carefully composed images, we're introduced to Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and his frumpy partner-in-crime, Howard (Matt Malloy). They're waiting around in a near-empty airport at night, passing the time by grousing misanthropically about how the women in their lives have deeply wounded them.
Chad's lady friend ran out on him leaving him with nothing but his American Gigolo poster. Howard's girlfriend lied to him, then started blowing him off, then wouldn't return his phone calls, and finally did "that whole fade-out thing." These men are not happy, and they're angry at women for yanking their chains.
So, they cook up a little scheme - a little game. Chad sells Howard on the simple idea that they need to hurt somebody.
In the spare, carefully controlled pit-a-pat dialogue reminiscent of David Mamet's pathetic but testosterone heavy salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross, we learn that they're flying out to some Midwestern start-up office. In their six weeks of training the new staff and setting up the corporation, why don't they find some unsuspecting female? Someone frumpy, or perhaps disabled, who's given up on the male species and is resigned to blending in with the wallpaper. Chad and Howard will sweep in, turn on the charm, romance her, give her flowers, then cruelly dump her and smash the glass house.
