Robert Altman is the very model of cinematic inconsistency. Or maybe he's consistently inconsistent. No other director working today has alternated between good and bad films with such regularity.

The veteran filmmaker followed his delightful comedy "Cookie's Fortune" with the dreadful "Dr. T & The Women." He rebounded with the wonderfully wry "Gosford Park." But now he has returned with its antithesis, "The Company."

This brain-dead, ballet-centric drama is not quite as punishingly bad as "Dr. T." For one thing, the scenes of dance performances — by Chicago's Joffrey Ballet company — help ensure that it's at least watchable. However, as a dramatic film it fails spectacularly

There's nothing particularly insightful about the same character "insights" already seen in such films as "Flashdance" and "Honey." And "The Company" is paced so sluggishly that you might find yourself dozing during the awkward dramatic pauses between dance scenes.

Despite the title, the film actually follows one dancer, promising ballerina Ry (Neve Campbell, who served as one of the film's producers and even co-wrote the story). After years of training, starvation and struggling to make ends meet, Ry manages to impress the company's perfectionist artistic director, Alberto Antonelli (Malcolm McDowell), which isn't easy.

But when she's poised for real success, Ry begins a relationship with Josh (James Franco), a young sous-chef who's clearly smitten. And as you'd expect, balancing her love life and career is next to impossible.

This really is nothing new, and the clich�d dialogue and one-note characterizations may have you wishing Altman had decided to make a documentary instead.

Perhaps that's why the cast seems so uninspired. Campbell and Franco seem to be going through the motions — at least in the dramatic scenes. And McDowell has played this same imperious character so many times that even he's a bore here.

"The Company" is rated PG-13 for scattered use of strong profanity (including one usage of the so-called "R-rated" curse word), flashes of partial female nudity and some veiled nudity, some suggestive dance moves, and some brief sexual contact. Running time: 112 minutes.

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