MovieChat Forums > The Company Men (2011) Discussion > Major plot issue for me

Major plot issue for me

posted 12 years ago by groovyroom
4 replies | jump to latest

So Ben Affleck's character is fired, given three months FULL PAY, yet :48 minutes into the film (and 3 months later in the story timeline) he can't pay his mortgage, country club or anything. Flat broke. Huh? So what that says is his family had zero money when he was fired, and they were living pay check to pay check, not one dime saved. Huh again??? Come on filmmakers, this doesn't make any sense. They've completely lost me here. If it was a year later, or even 7 months later I might buy it.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] johnston.scot 11 years ago

Yes, I agree.

I think the character was the sort of aspirer who assumes his income is always going to go up (and fairly quickly), and tends to live a lifestyle that's about one or two steps ahead of where he is. Pretty believable, actually.

[–] MuchToBeGratefulFor 11 years ago

Another issue besides those already mentioned is, early on the wife notes that their mortgage is going to reset. They had one of those adjustable rate mortgages with a low "teaser" rate, which eventually goes much higher, and theirs did.

And, sadly, it is very believable that he and his family were living paycheck to paycheck. He thought the gravy train was going to last forever. And way before the financial crisis, economists and financial planners were warning that people were not saving nearly enough for retirement, and too many people were not saving anything at all.

You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi

[–] jav4927 11 years ago

It's not a million miles from the way things are in reality for a lot of people. Some people have so much debt to service that if they miss one pay day they'll end up in hock.