In the Company of Men

Unless they're serial killers, sociopaths don't get much sympathy from the movies. That's why Neil LaBute's acrid, perverse, ultimately overwrought In the Company of Men will win few fans. In a premise distressingly similar to that of Box of Moonlight, two generic businessmen -- nerdy Howard (Matt Malloy) and insufferable Chad (Aaron Eckhart) -- travel together to a distant assignment. En route they share horror stories about the treachery of women. A kind of Mrs. Havisham in reverse, Chad proposes that they avenge themselves on the female sex by choosing a random woman at their destination, seducing her, making her dependent on them both, then dumping her and watching her unravel. Howard tentatively agrees, urged on by Chad's ruthlessness and his own puny rage.

The victim they settle on is Cristine (Stacy Edwards), a beautiful hearing-impaired woman. In the uneasy triangle that ensues, it's unclear who's kidding, who's serious, and what the real agendas are. LaBute himself ends up a David Mamet clone with one scene painfully reminiscent of the "brass balls" monologue in the movie version of Glengarry Glen Ross. Misanthropic rather than misogynistic, In the Company of Men is at best unconsoling, at worst unconvincing. Opens Friday at the Avon.

-- Peter Keough