Um Agente como a Gente

Did you know you could get a double agent to confess merely by spending the day correcting his grammar? Neither did I, until I saw this movie.

Douglas McGrath (who also co-wrote and co-directed) is Allen Quimp (yup, rhymes with "wimp"), a nerdy high-school grammar - and sometimes driver's ed - teacher in 1950's America. His over-achieving family think he's a loser and don't understand his all-consuming dream to rid the world of bad grammar. So, one day he tells his father-in-law a little white lie: he's really an agent with the CIA. Pretty soon the whole community knows, including a visiting Russian ballet star (Ryan Phillipe), who wants to defect- to Quimp! One thing leads to another, and the CIA ends up really recruiting Quimp and sending him to Cuba, where he roots out the double agent, becomes involved in several plots to assassinate (or at least humiliate) Castro, and becomes a DJ, playing songs that the CIA take as a coded request to invade the Bay of Pigs.

Never quite "sidesplittingly funny," as the back of the box boasts, but mildly amusing and watchable, with the "mongoose in my shorts" bit being probably the funniest scene in the movie; coming in at a close second is Alan Cumming's rendition of "Diamonds Are a Boy's Best Friend" (don't ask!).

Worth watching mainly for the performances. McGrath is likable as the clueless Quimp; Sigourney Weaver is perfect as Quimp's over-bearing and social-climbing wife. Alan Cumming doesn't seem to have much to do in his scenes, but makes the most of them, amusingly bringing to life his "I-can't-believe-this-guy-was-a-Cuban-dictator" character. John Turturro's character is easily the funniest - an agent who's gone a bit around-the-bend and become a raving lunatic bent on assassinating Fidel Castro- played by Anthony LaPaglia, who wins the "most unlikely casting" prize- which is not to say it wasn't a good choice! Amusing and likable, but never hilarious. This one goes somewhere in the grey area between C+ and B-. (Or two and a quarter stars out of four.)

In the 60's, Alan Quimp (Douglas McGrath) is a school teacher of English grammar and married with the very demanding woman Daisy Quimp (Sigourney Weaver). In order to avoid the constant mockery in Daisy's family, Alan says that he is a secret CIA agent. Daisy tells everybody, the CIA acknowledges the lie, but due to a coincidence, Alan has just helped and hidden the professional Russian dancer Petrov (Ryan Phillippe) who wanted to leave Russia. The CIA decides to hire Alan as an agent, to get the credits of bringing Petrov to USA, and immediately decides to send him to a very calm place, Cuba. Again due to a fortunate coincidence, Alan disclosures the identity of a double agent (Dennis Leary). Then, Fidel Castro (Anthony LaPaglia) makes the revolution and deposes Fulgêncio Batista (Alan Cumming). With the support of the former CIA agent in Cuba Lowther (Woody Allen) and Croker Johnson (John Turturro), Alan tries unsuccessfully to eliminate Fidel. In the end, he is sent to another quiet place (Vietnam). This movie is one of the most funny I have recently seen. The constellation of excellent actors and actresses is amazing. The story, a hilarious joke with the contemporary history of Cuba and USA, is delicious. Only the character of John Turturro disappoints a little bit, but when Woody Allen appears in scene, there are fantastic ironic dialogs. All the cast is excellent and wonderful, but Woody Allen is splendorous, as usual, with the best lines. I can not understand why this movie is so underrated in IMDB. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Um Agente Como A Gente' (`An Agent Like Us')

Obs: There is a joke in the Brazilian title that is not possible to explain to those not familiarized with Portuguese.

This is a VERY funny movie, that owes a great deal to Woody Allen. It's kind of like "Bananas", 30 years later and badly gone to seed. Who cares if the premise is absurd and the movie is episodic, there's some hilarious material here, and stars like Sigourney Weaver, Woody Allen, John Turturro and others are very funny. Sometimes it's a bit like a prolonged SNL skit, with the whole grammar teacher bit, but there is always another laugh around the corner. All this said, the film was a bit of a disappointment in retrospect, and does not live up to its potential. It's almost like they ran out of money and cut some corners while making it. It is also fairly short, and it appears that pieces of some scenes that may have been cut from the film are actually shown during the credits. Lightweight, yet nowhere near as bad as some reviewers are saying.

This movie is pretty funny if you don't want to think too much. Yes, the movie doesn't really have a consistent plot and is mainly divided up into different segments, but the movie is still hilarious, and Douglas McGrath does an excellent job as the geek who the government assigns to a dangerous mission. Oops, sorry. WHOM the government assigns to a dangerous mission.

Anyway, don't expect any underlying meaning or important plot points in this movie. Just expect to laugh.

"Company Man" is a clever farce that deserves to be seen by more people. Though Douglas McGrath, its writer and star, is not well known, it has several famous actors, such as Sigourney Weaver and Woody Allen, playing major roles. This film is a revisionist look at the Bay of Pigs fiasco, much in the way "Dick" looks at Watergate. If you can suspend your disbelief a bit, and you're ready to have fun, you'll enjoy this comedy. Mucho laughs!