Parental guidance

‘In Good Company,” Paul Weitz’s first solo outing as writer and director, is a gentle, tenderhearted look at ageism and globalized corporate culture. And a romantic comedy. And an ad-hoc father-son picture.

“I like it when themes overlap,” says Weitz, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay of “About a Boy,” co-written with his brother, Chris. “So to me the overall theme of the movie is, how do you maintain your dignity in the face of things you can’t control?”

The film, which opens Dec. 29, follows a hard-working family man (Dennis Quaid) whose world is turned upside down when a large conglomerate overtakes the company where he works and installs a new boss half his age. As a final insult, his ambitious new superior (Topher Grace) begins to date his college-age daughter (Scarlett Johansson).

A simple summation of the film can’t convey the deft sensitivity with which Weitz intertwines the big ideas and human characters in his story. One striking touch: The young corporate henchman never devolves into the one-note villain he so easily could have become.

“I’m not interested in having one character who seems real and another character who seems cardboard,” Weitz explains. “To me, the younger guy is interesting and tortured in his own way. So even though he’s in this position of authority, and it might be natural for him to be a jerk, he is aware that he is missing something in his core and desperately wants some of the things the older guy has.”

Perhaps more succinctly, Grace adds, “There’s a way-more-obvious version of the movie that would be really boring.”

Grace’s reaction to the material was immediate. “Certainly when I first read the script, it really hit home,” he says. “My dad had a very similar experience happen to him at work -- he works in New York as a businessman -- and I think what’s amazing is Paul roots things in the truth. He has an understanding that life is never exclusively funny or exclusively dramatic. Honestly, my first thought was, ‘I can’t believe someone hasn’t done a movie about this already.’ ”

As it turned out, the New York City office building used for the film shoot was the very one where Grace’s father used to work.

In another bold move, Weitz allows the romantic plot, which in another film might become the main story, to remain in the back seat so that the relationship between the film’s main male characters can remain at the fore. Think of it as a chick flick for guys.

As Weitz explains, “In terms of conventional romantic comedy, it’s similar to ‘About a Boy’ in that it’s taking that structure and imposing it on two male figures. And I wanted the romance to be realistic in that the characters actually aren’t appropriate for each other, even though I knew there would be certain people in the audience upset by the idea of them not ending up together.”

Initially, he says, he thought of the Johansson-Grace coupling as “just a stumbling block in the relationship between the older guy and the younger guy. But as we started to shoot it, I found more substance in it and it became more interesting because of the chemistry between them.”

Chris Weitz, credited as a producer on “In Good Company” and working on his own solo debut, insists the brothers’ partnership remains intact, saying, “It’s not as if the rock band has broken up.”

Additionally, having some distance from the creation of “In Good Company” made the emotional impact of finally seeing the film that much more powerful. In the face of any lofty talk regarding corporate globalization, brother Chris sees something a little closer to home.

“The Dennis Quaid character really reminds me of our dad when Paul and I were growing up,” says Chris Weitz. “He even physically evokes that, and I hadn’t realized the extent to which that was true until I saw the whole narrative strung together a film. Subconsciously, I think my brother was doing this little tribute to our dad.”