Missing the pointe

The Company
PG-13
Starting tomorrow at Ritz theaters
Two reels out of four

Robert Altman is an American icon. Now pushing 80, he has had a career that most people in Hollywood can only dream about. With The Company, he brings his inimitable, talky style to the world of ballet.

And although the film is not a train wreck, it’s not particularly special either.

Neve Campbell plays Loretta Ryan, a dancer in the Joffrey Ballet who finally gets her big shot when one of the main dancers is told to sit out for a while. The Company follows her and the rest of the Joffrey dancers as they go through their paces — or in this case, their pliés.

While at a bar, Loretta meets a cook and begins a relationship with him. Meanwhile, the company’s charismatic director (Malcolm McDowell) must get the group ready as they present a new piece, a bizarre fairytale-like ballet that has something to do with the 1960s.

There is a lot to be said about Altman’s approach. It reminds one of the cinéma-vérité style so big in the ’60s. Many times it seems as if you are watching a documentary. And that goes a certain distance. Altman obviously appreciates ballet, and many of the live-performance scenes should hold interest for those in love with that art form.

Yet even the most noble of documentaries must have some dramatic tension. The Company never rises above being just interesting. It introduces the character played by Campbell (who also gets a writing credit), yet doesn’t do much with her. For a while, it looks as if we are going to see a ballet version of All About Eve, but the movie never explores that story line.

It also does not do a lot with McDowell’s character. Although it’s nice to see the veteran actor in a major motion picture, he seems a little out of place with the rest of the movie. His character would have worked better in one of those Altman vehicles in which star cameos pop up all over the place (The Player, Prît-à-Porter aka Ready to Wear). Altman may have been better off going with a cast of unknowns this time around. It would have been truer to his documentary-style approach.

All this is a shame because The Company is certainly not a bad movie. The featured dance company looks very much how one would picture a professional ballet troupe. Furthermore, the dance scenes look like real ballet — not that I’m an expert on the subject.

But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as the saying goes. The Company is just that — a well-intentioned movie that can’t seem to manage more. Unfortunately, for both the audience and for Altman, that’s not enough.

Recommeded rental

American Splendor
R
Available Tuesday

In years to come, American Splendor will probably be known for all the wrong reasons. On Tuesday, the Oscar nominations will be announced and there’s a good chance that Paul Giamatti’s brilliant performance will be one more great turn totally snubbed by the Academy. And that will be a shame. In American Splendor, Giamatti plays Harvey Pekar, a grumpy civil servant living in Cleveland who becomes an unlikely celebrity when he starts writing a comic book about his everyday life. This leads to a fortuitous meeting with Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis), an only slightly less likeable comic-book fan who becomes Harvey’s soul mate. One of the best movies of 2003, if slightly idiosyncratic.