Drama, USA, 2003
Director: Robert Altman
Cast: Neve Campbell, James Franco
Score: ***

The Company is the real life Chicago Joffrey Ballet – world class artists who are as beautiful and vulnerable as they are difficult and the centre of Robert Altman’s raw new film.  The story revolves around Ry, (short for Ryan) played by Neve Campbell of the Scream films), a gifted performer who suffers a broken tendon mid-way through the film.  Campbell, who also co-produced the film, spent two years training with the Joffrey Company in order to perform the dances including “My Funny Valentine”, a sexy romantic pas de deux and the climatic over-the-top “Blue Snake” on display in the film.  Her boyfriend (James Franco) understands her agony and the hours she has to spend working to make ends meet and practicing her craft.  This is as far as plotting goes, for the film comprises isolated incidents within the broad framework of ballet.

Yes, everyone knows that it is tough as hell to survive in the world of ballet.  Dancers do the impossible.  Strenuous routines, unearthly hours, agonizing practices and unearthly sacrifices are part and parcel of the life of a ballet dancer.  In The Company, director Robert Altman (Gosford Park, M*A*S*H*) takes it upon himself to demonstrate what it is like to live in such a world. Altman claims that he was thrilled to be let into the unfamiliar world of dance.  It shows, as Altman has projected every member of the company as a martyr for the course.  In the film’s best scene, a dancer is dismissed from a sequence as not been good enough.  He sits down in tears (as if fired forever), only to be comforted by another before his agent threatens to sue the company for ill-treatment.  There is no one to be blamed.  The best must go on.  This is not the Altman audiences are familiar with – the one who satirized the army in M*A*S*H and destroyed the institution of marriage in A Wedding. The Company definitely has its moments of pleasure, but one only wishes Altman would have added some balance to this effort.

The music and choreography are the highlights of The Company – though one can argue that nothing can substitute for actually attending a live theatrical performance.  Yet, with the graceful movement of the camera and inspirational selected music from Chopin and Glazunov, even those unfamiliar with the arts are in for a rare treat.