A Family Man (2016)

A headhunter whose life revolves around closing deals in a survival-of-the-fittest boiler room, battles his top rival for control of their job placement company -- his dream of owning the company clashing with the needs of his family.

Director:

Mark Williams

Writer:

Bill Dubuque

Stars:

Gerard Butler, Gretchen Mol, Alison Brie

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gerard Butler	...	Dane Jensen
Gretchen Mol	...	Elise
Alison Brie	...	Lynn
Anupam Kher	...	Dr. Singh
Alfred Molina	...	Lou Wheeler
Willem Dafoe	...	Ed Blackridge
Dylan Roberts	...	Bob
Dustin Milligan	...	Sumner
Maxwell Jenkins	...	Ryan
Julia Butters	...	Lauren
Mimi Kuzyk	...	Bernadine
Dwain Murphy	...	Antoine
Kathleen Munroe	...	Toni
Jess Berry	...	Dottie
Tim Hopper	...	Tommy

Storyline

As the boss (Willem Dafoe) of a Chicago-based headhunter prepares to retire, Dane Jensen (Gerard Butler), who works at the Blackridge Recruiting agency arranging jobs for engineers, vies to achieve his longtime goal of taking over the company going head-to-head with his ambitious rival, Lynn Vogel (Alison Brie). However, Dane's 10-year-old son, Ryan (Maxwell Jenkins), is suddenly diagnosed with cancer and his professional priorities at work and personal priorities at home begin to clash with one another.

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Plot Keywords:

family | 

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Taglines:

What are you working for?

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual content

Did You Know?

Trivia

Screenwriter Bill Dubuque was a corporate headhunter for twelve years.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Dane Jensen: [narrating] I am a headhunter and I am the purest form of salesman alive. I sell the American dream. I make money out of thin air, smoke, whole cloth. I stand on the shoulders of giants, the hardest of hardened salesmen. Tin men, Bible salesmen, slum realtors. We're a wolf pack of commissioned phone jockeys working 70 hours a week without a net. You hit, you hit big. You blank, and the repo man's tailgating the minivan at the grocery store. This job is a desk, a phone, a chair, and ...

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Connections

References Wall Street (1987)

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Soundtracks

Christmas Time
Performed by Let's Become Actors

User Reviews

Good performances wasted on a terrible script

A Family Man tells the story of Dane Jensen (Butler), a headhunter who is proficient at his job, and will sink to all lows to be the best at it. He balances that with a home life, which he maybe isn't home for enough, but is putting in the time to make ends meet for his family.

His whole world is thrown for a loop when his eldest child is found to have a terminal disease. The story follows an extremely predictable path of redemption.

The disappointing aspect of the movie is in what could have been. Butler gives a solid performance as the main character, and Alfred Molina, Willem Defoe, Gretchen Mol, and Alison Brie are all equally up the task. However, the script does such a good job painting Butler's character as ruthless that when it wants to redeem him, all you can do is ask: Really? Similarly Defoe's and Molina's arcs betray they characters.

It really is a shame, because the actors deserved better,

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 July 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Family Man

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,641,235

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zero Gravity Management, G-BASE

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1