Dan Foreman is headed for a shakeup. He is demoted from head of ad sales for a major magazine when the company he works for is acquired in a corporate takeover. His new boss, Carter Duryea, is half his age—a business school prodigy who preaches corporate synergy. While Dan develops clients through handshake deals and relationships, Carter cross-promotes the magazine with the cell phone division and Krispity Krunch, an indeterminate snack food under the same corporate umbrella. Both men are going through turmoil at home. Dan has two daughters, Alex, age 18, and Jana, age 16, and is shocked when his wife tells him she’s pregnant with a new child. Carter, in the meanwhile, is dumped by his wife of seven months just as he gets his promotion. Dan and Carter’s uneasy friendship is thrown into jeopardy when Carter falls for, and begins an affair with, Dan’s daughter Alex. —IMDb
Paul John Weitz (born November 19, 1965) is an American film producer, screenwriter, actor, and film director. He is the brother of filmmaker Chris Weitz.
Weitz was born in New York City, New York. He is son of the actress Susan Kohner and Berlin-born novelist/fashion designer John Weitz (born Hans Werner Weitz), and the grandson of Bohemia-born producer Paul Kohner and Mexican actress Lupita Tovar. His father, and maternal grandfather, were Jewish, and his maternal grandmother was Catholic; he was raised in a “nonreligious” household.
Growing up in New York City, he attended The Allen-Stevenson School and later Collegiate. Then, he graduated from Wesleyan University, where he wrote the play Mango Tea. The play was performed off-Broadway.
Weitz first achieved mainstream success by directing American Pie with his brother Chris. He then co-directed 2002’s About a Boy, an adaption of Nick Hornby’s novel which was Weitz’s greatest critical success and earned him and… read more
The film is not exactly average but this one line made me feel wowed and that was "no one had ever hurt me trying to teach me something" (it's not the actual quote but the spirit is there, I reckon). And that one sentence made me realize things about me and about whom I call friend or not., whom I call teacher or fellow colleague or student. I dunno. That sentence did move me. And the film is not altogether bad bad.
I really enjoyed this. I actually worked for a company that would make you go to a three day seminar about synergy and how it's good. The first day they asked the room (A small group of my co-workers and I) what synergy was. I knew the answer so I replied. It's about corporate take over. They said no it's not.
It's really not the worst movie, but it gets one star for being almost unimaginably wimpy and for its appalling score (also wimpy - which I now see I can blame on Damien Rice, to my enormous surprise). Topher Grace is charming, but does he actually have a career? He seems too intelligent to be as idiotic as we always see him being. Scarlett's presence was due to miscasting. The script is 100% amateur.
