Yet another marvelous, marvelous film from Robert Altman. I hope that he makes a hundred more movies before he leaves us. What really needs to be said about The Company, though, is this: kudos to Neve Campbell! This is certainly an Altman film, but it was Ms. Campbell who organized this whole project and pulled it off. Who knew that this young beauty had merely been slumming the whole time? Her years in awful television drama and slasher flicks paid off. She came up with the story, put up some of the money, and she was the one who convinced Altman to take the job. Not only that, but she comes off as almost too modest with the relatively small role she has in the film. Of course, she's in it more than anyone else, and we get to learn about her life more than anyone else's, but the spotlight is simply on ballet itself. And what a beautiful art it is! The film works like a musical, with ballet numbers popping up throughout the loose narrative. Most are unannounced: these are just some of the performances the company (the Joffrey Ballet Company of Chicago) give throughout their season. The final setpiece (a hallmark of Robert Altman's cinema) is built up to through most of the film. The Company works much like a documentary, a documentary that makes no commentary on its subject. It's all just observation. In many ways, it's not like a regular Altman film, because another of his hallmarks is the swift and thorough characterizations his subjects receive. By the end of Nashville, those 20+ characters are so potent in our minds that the audience could write novels based on them. Not so with this one, where we really only get wisps of the people. It's a subtler approach than Altman's more famous films; it's a grace, I suppose, that fits the subject. We watch the everyday events that occur in the company, the successes and the failures, the fading careers and the beginnings, the egos of the stars and the humbleness of the chorus. The film also follows the characters (this time mostly Neve's) lives after the season is over. Campbell has to work as a bartender in a trendy club. Along the course of the film she meets a handsome young chef played by James Franco. Malcolm McDowell shows the strongest personality in the film, mostly because he's playing the company's head. The kind of humor that is specifically Altman's is not common in The Company, but when it does pop up it's always around McDowell. This is a wonderful film, not to be missed. It's also the rare film that I really wish I could have seen in a theater. Perhaps one day, at a distant Robert Altman retrospective, I will have that opportunity. 9/10.

This is the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Alberto Antonelli (Malcolm McDowell) is their leader. Loretta 'Ry' Ryan (Neve Campbell) is one of the dancers who starts a relationship with Josh (James Franco).

This has all the style of director Robert Altman. It may be a mistake to use him. As a showcase for the ballet troupe, it has their beauty but it lacks the visceral kinetic energy of a performance. It's not easy to transfer it onto the screen. Setting the camera back to the audience does not help. The slow panning camera work is not enough. It needs to be more inventive. The best dance performance scene is probably the rainy night and that's only because the audience added some drama. As a story, there isn't much of one. It's commendable that Neve Campbell got into shape to return to dance but there is a notable difference between her and the professionals. The issue is that Campbell and Franco aren't doing much acting. They don't have much dialogue. This is an intriguing exercise. Ultimately, it is beauty without the tense drama.

Robert Altman sets the stage and lets his players do what they do in his films. He's renown as one of the great directors to give actors freedom (he's probably in his own way as meticulous as Stanley Kubrick, only with far less takes),though one wonders if from time to time he does give his direction to an actor or to make sure they know what they're doing. But in his films, like with this Chicago dancing company presented in his 2003 film The Company, the people doing the work need to know what they're doing, and that's the key to getting process, since dance, like film, combines many elements (in terms of dance there's physical movement, there's acting and performance, there's emotion, there's music and lighting, and so on).

I imagine that's what drew Altman to the project (it was said it took some consideration before he accepted the job),that and perhaps a connection with the character Malcolm McDowell plays, Mr. Antonelli. He doesn't have much of a ego, but when he needs to (or just wants to) he'll put on airs. While some of the students may roast him eventually- there's a company Christmas party where he's ruthlessly but pleasantly mocked- they always take what he says seriously, since when he speaks one listens, even if it's a rambling speech about what the 1960's were like. He, like Altman, is in control even when he doesn't seem to be doing much. And how the stage is set, as we see, goes a long way for a fantastic dance set-piece, be it with thirty people in crazy costumes or a couple in very sensual poses.

The Company has not much plot to speak of- then again, Altman would probably rather get a root canal than worry about a plot- except that it's about a dance/ballet company putting on performances throughout a season, with some minor drama here and there, a small romance between a superstar in the group played by Neve Campbell and a chef played by James Franco (tender scenes but played for real, much like those in Thieves Like Us). But there are a few great scenes (and as Hawks would say, no bad ones),and one of them might be one of my favorite scenes, in terms of intentional (or not) artistic elements coming together, in any Altman film. There's a performance out at night in a park in front of hundreds. The first part goes reasonably well, with thunderstorm sounds in the background. Then Campbell and another dancer take the stage, and as the lovely string music swells, the lightning and thunder as well, and the rain falls and the crowd looks anxious but all the while wrapped up in the completely professional-breathtaking dancing on stage, with little dust and other things flying in the air. It's glorious.

How much that was on the spot for Altman, or if it was planned to just shoot in the impending storm (or, perhaps, if it's all just made up for the movie),it's a really wonderful set piece among many others that are more conventionally stage-bound and shot with multiple cameras. The assortment is nice to see (a song from David Lynch's Industrial Symphony #1 even comes up). But it's those little scenes between people, where Altman breaks down artifice (or adds to it seamlessly, like a dance itself) that The Company gains its strength. One of which is the first time Franco and Campbell meet eye to eye at a bar. Watch as Franco sits and watched her play pool. This could go any number of ways from creepy to erotic, but it's more playful and ambiguous than that. We see the aftermath of this scene in a morning-after follow-up, but it's how Altman lets these actors be natural, find their space to look at one another or play pool, that is extraordinary.

What The Company lacks in melodramatic tension or a real driving force towards something- the one criticism it could be given, though not a harsh one, is an almost disdain for any continuing conflict- is made up for in a principle need to express what it's like to create something, anything, on stage or on film, that's worth something. It's the work of an old master still looking for ways to create, or observe it being done.