About as Good as James L. Brooks Gets, Which Isn't Bad

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2009)

Another sitcom-style comedy for adults from James L. Brooks.
Like all of Brooks' films, this one is well acted and written and it's always entertaining, but it's also unchallenging and cinematically uninteresting, and always feels slightly sanitized, even when it's dealing with rough topics.
Jack Nicholson plays yet another version of crazy in the kind of role that his later career has been full of. Helen Hunt was hot at the moment because of "Mad About You," and while it's inconceivable all these years later that she actually won an Oscar for this film, her experience in sitcom acting suits Brooks and his material well (though there's quite an ick factor in seeing her paired with someone so much older and lecherous). Greg Kinnear rounds out the principal cast as a gay artist, while Shirley Knight and Cuba Gooding Jr. appear in smaller roles.
Grade: A-