A superbly crafted film. Intelligent, amusing and thought-provoking.

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2000)

This film is superb.
When I first saw the preview, I wrote it off as just another cliched piece on dysfunctional families and mid-life crises. It is far from that.

If I was to pick one thing that really sets the film apart from your average Hollywood dross, it would be the number of well-defined characters. Even in a GOOD film, it's rare to find more than one character that you can relate to or feel any empathy with. This film has MANY.
Kevin Spacey is, of course, the stand out. His performance (as a man whose passion for life is rekindled after he becomes infatuated with one of his daughter's teenage friends) is stunning. His character is at once funny, poignant and moving. I laughed at virtually every word that came out of the man's mouth.
Annette Bening is also very solid as his wife and I thought Thora Birch did a great job as the slightly troubled teenage daughter (a role which is almost always screwed up).
Wes Bentley (aka 'the spooky guy next door') was also impressive, as was Mena Suvari (who looked like being the ONLY two-dimensional character in the film, up until the final moments). Even the cameos are good! (watch out for Peter Gallagher's 'who's the king, who's the king', 'how does it feel to get done by the king!')
All in all, it's hard to fault this film. It's extremely funny, easy to relate to and quite uplifting (in its own weird way). It also manages to steer clear of the usual cliches and stereotypes that films like this normally ooze (with the possible exception of Colonel Fitts - and even then I still enjoyed his character).
Don't miss it.