My ever changing moods (***spoilers***).

I went to see In Good Company as a Martin Luther King Day matinee treat.

A few random thoughts.

1) I just feel so bad for Meg Ryan, who looked like the freaky Botoxed and nip tucked from hell younger sister of Barbara Hershey on that NBC Tsunami benefit, while her ex seems to be growing into roles that Richard Gere turns down. The boyish charm has been leavened with some gray and a slight paunch and voila--a movie star who can really act emerges.

2) Topher Grace's role was an interesting twist on his That '70s Show persona of Eric Forman. I'm also wondering if there were a script rewrite to get surrogate dad allusion for Dennis Quaid as "Dan Foreman." The whole Duryea name thing puts me in mind of the famous film noir actor Dan Duryea first seen in The Little Foxes and the brothers (Charles and Frank) who made America's first gas-powered automobile.

3) Was this the first globalizing corporate takeover "feel good" romantic comedy? Credit to the screenwriter/director Paul Weitz (is it really the American Pie guy?, yes it is).

4) I haven't worked this out fully but the film seemed somehow an inversion of The Graduate. ***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Basically the roles of the adults and kids in the two films are reversed and, of course, we're not offered the standard cliched Hollywood ending where the boy gets the girl, but that was a pleasant relief from having a movie with an unrealistically happy ending. There's more to work out here for a later date.

Re: the older guy/younger girl relationship, the post-breakup lines about the best conversations I've ever had hit close to home. ***END SPOILERS***

Some potentially exciting news on the freelance journalism side of things, but I need to wait for all "i"s to be dotted and "t"s crossed before elaborating.