Ben Affleck, ‘The Company Men,’ and recession movies

“It was only a matter of time” before the “credit crunch movie” arrived, said the Guardian. Ben Affleck is in talks to star in The Company Men, which is about a man dealing “with the consequences of being laid off, while also experiencing problems in his relationship.” Are we going to start seeing a lot of movies like this popping up?

Probably, said Katey Rich in Cinema Blend, “with the current financial crisis looking to last a long, long time.” But these films “may become the equivalent of Iraq war movies—timely and important, but too depressing and reminiscent of audience's actual troubles at home.”

Actually, “when the economy falls,” said Guy Bennett in Wealth Creation Tips, “the demand for escapist entertainment rises—history has proven this over and over again.” During the Great Depression, “25% of American families had no income and 40% of factory workers were unemployed,” yet box office sales “soared 22%." So, please, distract us.

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