The issue of downsizing as a consequence of a recession is pervasive, and is nothing new as subject matter for movies. The difference in the social dramas addressing the issue is in the approach. "Up in the Air" gave us the man hired to carry out the dread mission of firing employees in order to relieve the boss of that burden.

"The Company Men" (not to be confused with "In the Company of Men") turns its emphasis on a group of people who have been occupying the executive suites of a typical large corporation in the time of the Great Recession of the 21st Century when almost no one is safe from the ruination of their careers. With a "see, we're all in this together" theme, it's a cross section of relationships and interrelationships among the elite of a conglomerate shipping company as they undergo a rip in the assumptive fabric of their lives.

Perhaps the first surprise is how poorly prepared titans of industry with six-to-seven figure salaries find themselves when the ax falls, which indicates that CEOs and mid-level managers of such corporations are among the worst money managers--a severance package away from the poor house, foreclosure and intimate knowledge of fellow destitutes. After massive bonuses and salaries on Wall Street have come to light in the wake of the Stimulus Package, it's almost unimaginable that so many corporate execs went unprotected.

John Wells, a writer and director closely associated with the "ER" and "The West Wing" TV series, among others, delivers a film that provides some dimension--if not a helluva lot of gut wrench--to what we know, or think we know, about the worst thing that can happen to a professional with some age and maturity on his or her bones. At the expense of full engagement, however, the auteur takes the high road with his earnest story, without benefit of headline scandal or spectacle. At least, thanks to the smoldering presence of Maria Bello, there's some intimation of sex.

The central character among the several story threads is Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck in semi-cocky mode--the go-to guy for this type of boy-man who never quite moves on from high school competitiveness and material win-lose simplicity). As the head of Sales, he's decidedly on the fast track in the corporate hierarchy.

Without a whiff of anything but the maintenance of a winning image, he pays a mortgage on a grand manse for him, wife Maggy (Rosemarie DeWitt, "Rachel Getting Married") and two kids, Kevin and Fran. So, when he's brought into sharp and gorgeous ice lady Sally Wilcox's (Maria Bello, "A History of Violence") office to become part of the first wave of "consolidations" he finds himself on a fast track to street cleaner, if that.

But he doesn't take it lying down. Before he merely accepts the edict of his suspension, he wants to see his mentor and boss Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones, "No Country For Old Men"), a co-founder of the company with old buddy James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson, "The Proposal"). Salinger, the charismatic guy who fills any room he's in, is the principal who holds most of the shares in the company and who, thereby, is really calling all the shots he thinks necessary to keep the shipping company afloat in melt-down economic times and, by the way, trim and modernize it.

Enter Jack Dolan (Kevin Costner) as the outside entrepreneur-worker who, as an old buddy of Bobby's, does a damn good job of jabbing him about the dichotomies between them, the virtues of unionism and down-to-earth labor versus the evils of management. This thread figures into the suspenseless but surprising finish.

Almost no one is safe from the sweep going on and, soon, Bobby's colleague Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper, "Breach") follows Bobby's path through Sally's office. Wells takes great care in detailing the home lives (read: rich housewives) of each of the principal male characters involved.

As for Sally, she's acting as an arm of Gene McClary's decision-making, both of them showing a trace of humanity as well as self-interest in trying to stem the flow of bloodletting and espousing the unfairness of the process they're part of... until they aren't any longer.

The depth of this particular relationship, Gene and Sally's, is auteur Wells' big chance to provide some spice to the enterprise. In a subplot of infidelity and a young, beautiful woman's attraction to power, we get a sprinkling of love between the sheets, pillow talk and betrayal.

But the suggested skin contact here isn't requited for us in a visible manner enough to raise the temperature of excitement of the piece. One can easily sense Wells' level of limits and propriety, allowing just enough to produce a quick leer. More than once I was wishing for a vengeance murder or something on a higher level of moral shock and awe to enliven the narrative.

As packages go, this is one powerful ensemble of actors and, as the average adult viewer will find, it is (1), a superbly literate and intelligent piece of work and (2), it's the actors, and pretty much only the actors that makes this worth seeing. Its 106 minutes of dehumanization in executive offices... what passes for super-soap operatic crises, drags on, dramatically toothless, or close to, bringing that sigh of relief when the real, actual end comes into our sightlines.

Affleck, to pick one performance out of many, adds another brick in his personal career re-build with a role he's made for, which follows his very strong showing in "The Town." We send him kudos.

The subject of employment rifts in individual lives during the "Great Recession-nearly the Second Great Depression" will likely continue to draw in dramatic feature film attention as well as documentary analyses for years. The fact that Wells centers on the upper chambers of the employment continuum doesn't enhance our sympathies or quite meet the challenges of the societal shock waves. The sympathy factor here is a "no show," probably accounting for a limited degree of engagement despite the superb work of a highly employable cast.

                                      ~~  Jules Brenner