In Good Company

Herald rating: ***


It's a boy thing. Paul Weitz, who directed the big-screen version of Nick Hornby's About A Boy with Hugh Grant, goes back to his side of the Atlantic for this take on a slightly older father-son theme.

That 70s Show's Topher Grace debuts as ageing magazine ad manager Dennis Quaid's younger, smarter boss. Both men are going through turmoil at home. Dan has two teenage daughters and his wife is pregnant again. Carter has been dumped from his seven-month marriage. Home and office politics merge when Carter falls for Dan's 18-year-old daughter, Alex (Scarlett Johansson), in a wry rom-com/rites of passage story.

Lots of extras on the DVD, including seven behind-the-scenes features, the best of which are Getting Older, in which Quaid ruminates on his career; New York Locations, with Weitz directing Johansson and Grace on the Manhattan streets; and Cameras, a revealing doco as Weitz edits an hour from his movie, followed by 10 deleted scenes.

* DVD, video rental out now