Agnes De Mille in To A Young Dancer wrote, "The universe lies before you on the floor, in the air, in the mysterious bodies of your dancers, in your mind. From this voyage no one returns poor or weary." Veteran filmmaker Robert Altman would agree, given the enthusiasm for ballet he demonstrates in this tribute to the art form where dancers write poems across the blank page of the floor. The Company focuses on the members of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago in rehearsals and performances. Cinematographer Andrew Dunn does a magnificent job capturing the incredible mix of beauty, balance, and rhythm in their movements. The screenplay was written by Barbara Turner based on a story by Neve Campbell, who studied with the National Ballet of Canada before beginning her career as an actress.
The focus of this story is on Ry (Neve Campbell) who is trying to win the attention of Alberto Antonelli (Malcolm McDowell), the director of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. He is a very domineering taskmaster who calls his dancers "babies" and can be ruthlessly critical. Thankfully for those who feel the sting of his criticism, he also has a sense of humor. When another dancer is unable to perform, Ry gets a chance to show her stuff in a very theatrical pas de deux. The evening of its premiere, she dances as if completely oblivious to the rainstorm that threatens to cut short the performance. Antonelli is impressed. Her aggressive mother (Marilyn Dodds Frank) perks up her ears when she hears him say that Ry will have some special dances created around her.
It is interesting to realize that Ry and the other dancers have to work as cocktail waitresses in order to pay their bills. She lives in a cozy little apartment next to the train tracks. Ry, who has ended a relationship with another dancer, begins a new one with Josh (James Franco), a handsome chef. Meanwhile, she watches in shock when a veteran dancer snaps her Achilles heel — a depressing lesson of the fragility of the body. At a Christmas party, members of the ballet company poke fun of the Antonelli's imperiousness and ridicule the laid-back efforts of choreographer Robert Desrosiers to explain the meaning of his arcane ballet "The Blue Snake." The high point of The Company is when Neve Campbell and her partner Domingo Rubio perform Lar Lubovitch's "My Funny Valentine."
