Chix Chat on Film review: A man attempts to reconcile his life after his wife asks for a divorce.

Rating: Null/10 (31 July 2011)

I am always in favor of a good comedic family drama and thought that this one looked as good as any. I was also interested in this story because it struck an accord with someone such as I, who has been married for more than two decades, and begs the question where can it go wrong? Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) has reached a comfortable complacent point in his life when he is then blindsided by his wife Emily (Julianne Moore), as seen in the trailer, with her declaration of wanting a divorce and her confession of a transgression. I have seen Despicable Me so many times now with my grandson Three, that when I see Steve Carell all I can think about is Gru, yes sad but true. I digress. The situation with Cal and Emily leads to Cal spending a lot of time in a bar where he then meets Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gossling) a slick womanizing pretty boy. I was not convinced by the whole premise that led to Jacob and Cal bonding, but decided not to give it too much thought. But the fact of the matter is that if Jacob were as self absorbed as he was shown to be he would not have given Cal two minutes of thought, let alone try to help him deal with his circumstances. The most endearing character throughout this whole movie was Robbie (Jonah Bobo). I loved his determination and his honesty regarding how he felt about Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), it was so adorable. And he was right about the four year age difference in a few years it would make no difference at all. I found myself after sitting through approximately forty minutes of this film, slumped down in my seat, yawning while I wondered where it was headed and then started to think about the Whodini song, When We Gonna Get To The Good Part, Get Down To The Good Part. And finally we did get to the good part, when all the outlandishness and asinine behavior brought everything together. And to be perfectly honest I did not see it coming. I sat up took interest once more and thought that the film had taken a very clever turn. I liked the bottom half of the film, but I felt as if the top half was overindulged. I give this film an amber light for taking so long to get to the good part.