New Films: In the Company of Men

Director: Neil Labute Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Stacy Edwards, Matt Malloy

Neil Labute's supposedly scathing indictment of greed and misogyny in 1990s America actually feels a touch tame and anachronistic - there's certainly real cruelty in the central premise of two ambitious businessmen deciding to wreak revenge on womankind by seducing a helpless woman and then breaking her heart, but the picture feels like an extended affectation.

None of the behaviour in the film has the ring of authenticity which would make it truly disturbing - you recognise the distance that the story places between itself and the audience, and it stops you responding to the film on a gut level. It's an intellectual exercise, and not a very sophisticated one at that, its aims being to stir the complacency of political correctness.

That said, you can admire its cool, crisp style without buying into its despairing version of reality.