To be honest, Neve Campbell is best known to me as the girl who kisses Denise Richards in "Wild Things", and I suspect that most male film- goers would say the same. That famous kiss apart, I have normally associated Neve with silly comedies or third-rate thrillers and horror movies, but this film shows that there is more to her than that. In her youth Neve trained with the National Ballet of Canada and had long held the ambition to make a film set in the world of the ballet. "The Company" was the result. Neve not only starred in the film but also co- wrote and co-produced it. The "company" of the title is the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, a real ballet company. Most of the roles are played by company members, although Campbell herself plays the main role of Loretta 'Ry' Ryan, a rising young star dancer. Malcolm McDowell plays the company's artistic director, Alberto Antonelli, and James Franco plays Loretta's boyfriend Josh.Although all the various plot lines are fictitious, Robert Altman directs very much in the style of a "fly on the wall" documentary. There are lengthy extracts from ballets performed by the Joffrey Ballet and we see Antonelli holding discussions with his dancers and with other members of the company's management. I did not, however, think that this approach really works as a method of telling a fictional story because it is too detached and unemotional. There is no real linear plot; Loretta may be the main character but even her story tends to get swallowed up in a mass of detail. Another ballerina is injured and a male dancer is sacked from his role by an autocratic choreographer. Both these incidents in themselves could have formed the basis for an intriguing film, or at least a subplot, here they are dealt with so briefly and in such a dry, matter-of-fact way that they make little impact and the characters are soon forgotten. Although I have no great interest in ballet, two ballet-related films, Powell and Pressburger's "The Red Shoes" and Darren Arenofsky's more recent "Black Swan", are both favourites of mine. I think the reason is that they are only incidentally about ballet; they are also about all those things that make all great films great- a great script, great acting, great characters and unforgettable human dramas. "The Company" has none of these things; its well-staged dance sequences may make it popular with balletomanes but to the rest of us it seems to have something missing. It is not in the same class as Altman's previous film, "Gosford Park". The best acting contribution is from McDowell, if you can overlook his British accent- Antonelli is supposed to be Italian-American- but even his character is not one we can really identify with. Loretta is pretty forgettable, and her romance with Josh never arouses much interest. The documentary-style script is very dry. One critic called it the best movie of 2003; I can only presume he didn't get to the cinema much in that year. 4/10

Wouldn't you feel elated by its whimsy and its flimsy? Imagine you and your rendezvous, and some sparkling wine afterwards. It could well be a perfect candidate for a first date on the movies, and I think this is something not outside Altman's sensibility, to his credit.The film is made in a flow of quasi-vignettes, and the perennial demand for plot may make us miss the unadorned details that stitch together the larger loomings: James Franco falling on his face in the bowling, while the dancer cannot restrain from performing after a successful shot, may well exemplify why Neve Campbell is interested in him; or how acceptingly she coils in his - sleeping - arms on a failed New Year's Eve, a bit before the big snake of a dance begins. Or how the fact that in the - a bit sleazy - bar she works, she wears a wig - why, we may wonder? I suppose is out of not wanting to get her hair smelly, which is bizarrely touching.Many a reviewer has mentioned that McDowell may be Altman's stand-in, and his self-criticism. I think that James Franco is more subtly so: Altman makes him quite possibly the most charming of them all, exactly because he echoes his very charming, humane restraint in the dancing matter (remember how almost creepily he sits and stares his love for the first time in the bar, while she plays pool, and the balls, almost self-reflexively, like dancers, roll).The rest is a go-with-the-flow bravura performance. The film ends the way it begun, framed by the night-out-for-the-dance: the huge, awkward, anthropomorphic set with its smoking mouth and scary groan read like a hint on the various cannibalistic tendencies scattered throughout, and strikes a deliciously, sweetly menacing and oddball note with the lovers' injuries.The only restraint I would have towards the film is the sense - sometimes - that Altman plays out his virtuosity with a gala ampleness and a somewhat kitschy comfortableness. But at its best, like in the dancing-in-the-storm scene, which is topped by the double, Bach suite scene, it has the sensible urbanity of an Alex Katz painting.

Ry (Neve Campbell) is a dancer for the Chicago Joffrey Ballet, run by Alberto (Malcolm McDowell). She is a very committed hoofer, even to continuing a performance during a thunderstorm! But, alas, she learns that her boyfriend, also a dancer for the troupe, has been cheating on her. The creep! Life in the company is very difficult, at times, for Albeto is most demanding and folks can be cut from the group on a minute's notice. Injuries, too, can rear their ugly heads. Fortunately, Ry acquires a handsome new boyfriend, a chef (James Franco) and works very hard on the new production, a modern revue which starts with a costumed snake! Will it be successful? If you don't like either dance or Altman, you should probably not keep company with this film. It is a rather difficult watch, almost like a reality show but one where everything is not spelled out. For example, we see Ry at a bridal shower in a local eatery and, in the background, is a chef that will become her new love. But, we never see the two of them meet. The next time we glimpse either of them, they are already a couple. This will please some folks, who like the unusual, and confuse others. The dancing is very modern, so don't expect Swan Lake as well. Most of the dance numbers, very well done, involve an absence of sets at all. They rely on various changes of lighting, mostly, and we see it as on stage and off, where it is blinding. The acting is good but sometimes subordinate to the style of the film. Franco, for one, remains a stranger we would like to know better. That said, if you like ballet and you also adore movies that stand out from the rest, get The Company. Its unique qualities and fabulous numbers make it very worthwhile for discriminating filmgoers.

I was pleasantly surprised with this piece. It was not at all how I had expected it, and was remarkably taken aback, by how brilliantly executed the entire film really was.Neve Campbell, though I'm not a fan, did not add as much to the film as one might expect. It's not focused primarily on her, though she is the star, which is why the film might actually work as well as it does. Some might find it slow, yet I found it to be just the right pace, with just enough romance behind it in the background, to keep you watching.The greatest thing that the film offers, after the fact that it is brilliantly and beautifully filmed, is that it allows the audience to be involved in everything that's going on. It makes you feel as though you're apart of the group, or rather 'The Company'. It's an exceptionally good film, and while there are moments, that do tend to focus almost too much on the dancing sequences, that is after all what this film is all about. Dancing. And more to the point, ballet.James Franco is cute as usual, and although his presence certainly doesn't go unnoticed, he as well as Campbell are mere puppets in the director's film, rather than making you actually feel like they're real characters. Although, I did sense a nice chemistry between the two of them, it still would have been better with more well known, and accomplished actors.If you're not into ballet, this is not a film you are going to like or be excited about. Obviously don't watch it. Basically, it's about dancing, and the company that these people work for. Nothing more or less. If you're looking for a romance, go check out 'Sleepless in Seattle', because this is a dancing movie. The romance part is just on the side.However, if you like realistic films, that make you feel apart of the characters' (in this case dancers') lives, then this is your film.Very good, and pleasantly surprising. Though, it is just a one time watch.