James Hitchcock To be honest, Neve Campbell is best known to me as the girl who kisses Denise Richards in "Wild Things", and I suspect that most male film- goers would say the same. That famous kiss apart, I have normally associated Neve with silly comedies or third-rate thrillers and horror movies, but this film shows that there is more to her than that. In her youth Neve trained with the National Ballet of Canada and had long held the ambition to make a film set in the world of the ballet. "The Company" was the result. Neve not only starred in the film but also co- wrote and co-produced it. The "company" of the title is the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, a real ballet company. Most of the roles are played by company members, although Campbell herself plays the main role of Loretta 'Ry' Ryan, a rising young star dancer. Malcolm McDowell plays the company's artistic director, Alberto Antonelli, and James Franco plays Loretta's boyfriend Josh.Although all the various plot lines are fictitious, Robert Altman directs very much in the style of a "fly on the wall" documentary. There are lengthy extracts from ballets performed by the Joffrey Ballet and we see Antonelli holding discussions with his dancers and with other members of the company's management. I did not, however, think that this approach really works as a method of telling a fictional story because it is too detached and unemotional. There is no real linear plot; Loretta may be the main character but even her story tends to get swallowed up in a mass of detail. Another ballerina is injured and a male dancer is sacked from his role by an autocratic choreographer. Both these incidents in themselves could have formed the basis for an intriguing film, or at least a subplot, here they are dealt with so briefly and in such a dry, matter-of-fact way that they make little impact and the characters are soon forgotten. Although I have no great interest in ballet, two ballet-related films, Powell and Pressburger's "The Red Shoes" and Darren Arenofsky's more recent "Black Swan", are both favourites of mine. I think the reason is that they are only incidentally about ballet; they are also about all those things that make all great films great- a great script, great acting, great characters and unforgettable human dramas. "The Company" has none of these things; its well-staged dance sequences may make it popular with balletomanes but to the rest of us it seems to have something missing. It is not in the same class as Altman's previous film, "Gosford Park". The best acting contribution is from McDowell, if you can overlook his British accent- Antonelli is supposed to be Italian-American- but even his character is not one we can really identify with. Loretta is pretty forgettable, and her romance with Josh never arouses much interest. The documentary-style script is very dry. One critic called it the best movie of 2003; I can only presume he didn't get to the cinema much in that year. 4/10

anitaydugan Let me start this review by saying, I enjoy ballet so my review of this film isn't coming from the stance of someone who "just doesn't get ballet." It's coming strictly from the stance of a viewer watching a movie and this movie...sucked! Yes, there was some beautiful dancing in it, that was the best part of the movie...but it was supposed to be about a promising dancer unsure of whether or not she could withstand the pressure...where was that story? I saw none of that story at all. I really saw NO character development at all and that takes a promising movie involving ballet to a boring movie with no plot whatsoever.Unless you strictly want to watch some beautiful ballet, don't bother watching this movie.

kentingey We all have great desires in our youth to display our talents -- assuming, of course, that we are able to fight through the jungles of life and of "education" to find out what they really are. Very few of us end up achieving this, either because our talents are not discovered, they are not fostered, or our personal commitment is not there. The result that talents are often not developed to their potential, nor are they discovered and enjoyed by others. Perhaps our talents are not of the performing kind. Nonetheless, something fantastic happens when great talent achieves its potential, when magical scenes such as appear in The Company are brought to the public.The ultimate question is this, which is the illusion and which is the reality? It is not that the romance is possibly underdeveloped. It might not be real. The burdens of her impending stardom may make an alliance impossible, a fleeting wish. By the same token, injury or some other impediment may throw her into the arms (and the kitchen) of the budding culinary impresario. Perhaps this is the back history of the greatest restaurant in the world. Did we witness the zenith of her career or just an important step on the way to global jet-setting stardom? The rise and fall of the members of the company attest to this point. In the misty havens between our dreams and reality, there is room for hope in us all.

Jimmy Collins I am a fan of ballet, I find it to be the most beautiful form of dance in history, and The Company is a film I have been wanting to see for quite some time, in Australia the film hasn't been available for some time but it recently got a DVD release so I snapped it up quickly. The dance sequences are the best thing about this movie, I probably would have enjoyed it mire if there was a full film of just dance scenes, the scenes that aren't complimented very well by the actual storyline or lack thereof. The almost non existent plot bothered me a bit, at first it seemed as though it was headed somewhere but I quickly realized that this wasn't the case, it seemed to me that there was nothing to work towards, and at the end of the movie it just instills this belief further because the end is just so sudden and just nothing. Another thing I thought was wrong was the boring relationship between Neve and James, it wasn't interesting in the least.With the exception of the plot problems this movie is great, the score is fantastic, the acting is wonderful, Neve Campbell is stellar in a role that she obviously felt very passionate about, Malcolm McDowell does the whole high strung ballet boss to perfection, and Mr Franco is unnecessary but pretty enough to look at.If you're interested in ballet at all this movie is one to see because you really just observe how the company works in a kind of fly on the wall kind of way. For me it was just easy to watch but a tad frustrating due to the lacking plot but don't let that stop you, it's no Centre Stage but it is still worth watching. Check it out.