Available on DVD: “The Company Men”

Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Affleck in The Company Men

The Company Men recalls 1946's great post-World War II drama The Best Years of Our Lives, and the reason isn’t simply its trio of protagonists. The stresses and fears afflicting these office workers also stems from battle — one with joblessness and identity.

Beginning in the fall of 2008, Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is in crisis mode. One of the first casualties of downsizing at his Boston-based transportation firm, Bobby is initially in a state of denial, though his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) has the end of Bobby’s layoff checks in sight when she starts reorganizing family expenses. Bobby’s former co-worker Phil (Chris Cooper) is in a different boat when his pink slip comes, being two decades older and not as savvy about the modern workforce.

Meanwhile, Gene (Tommy Lee Jones), a co-founder of the company, is summarily fired by his best friend, the bottom-line driven CEO (Craig T. Nelson). As Gene reluctantly rearranges his life to start a new firm, Bobby builds houses with an in-law (Kevin Costner) to make ends meet and Phil slides closer to despair.

Writer-director John Wells — a driving force of TV’s ER — instills all of these men with dignity and humanity. The familiarity they also spark in us is due to the real-life stories they echo, although Gene’s push from his high perch requires a greater leap of imagination, despite Jones’ gruff-perfect performance.

Cooper, too, hits the right tone, as does Costner in his genial turn as a sharp-witted average guy. Affleck finishes up a period that started big for him, thanks to The Town, with a solid mixture of anger, confusion and confidence. As Bobby slumps down into a cubicle in the temporary workplace his ex-company sets up for laid-off employees, his look of disbelief and disgust counters the sympathetic ones from all the veterans in the room. The strength of The Company Men is how it gives voice to every one of those emotions.