In Good Company

Paul Weitz follows up the Nick Hornby-adaptation, About a Boy, with another sweetly sentimental comedy, though this time brother Chris shares credit only as producer and not writer-director. He’s got a sure touch with light but not insubstantial material, and is well served by a stellar cast. The reliable Dennis Quaid is a 51-year-old ad salesman for a national sports magazine that is taken over by a giant media conglomerate, which shunts him aside for 26-year-old whizkid Topher Grace. Not only does Dennis have to fire his colleagues and friends, his own status is more and more precarious, as his wife announces her surprisingly late pregnancy while older daughter Scarlett Johannson transfers from SUNY to much more expensive NYU. It only gets worse when Topher and Scarlett meet and fall for each other. Both the corporate takeover and romantic entanglement are well-handled. If the sharp satire goes soft at the end, that’s only fitting since we wouldn’t want to leave any of these most appealing characters unhappy. (2004, HBO/T, n.) *7+* (MC-66, RT-82.)