Big disappointment, I'm sorry to say.

Rating: 3/10 (16 November 2015)

A very disappointing, flat execution of an interesting premise. With a lot of overdone and obvious romantics, and an all too easy twist in the end, in which the main character simply calls up his creator, not to mention the mealymouthed continuation thereafter. Now, I hadn't truly expected something as brilliant as films that play with a similar premise, such as 'Being John Malkovich', 'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' or 'Synecdoche, New York', but this was all too meager.
Will Ferrell plays, with little imagination, an ice-cold IRS employee, but even when he's supposed to have become a warmer character, there's not much colour or sparkle. Ferrell's mimicry usually works fine in weird comedies, but here it didn't - and I really had my hopes up. Maybe he should just stick to comedies? Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman do not add much to their characters, even if they didn't do a terrible job, either. Thompson's part is rather annoying in itself, but at least Hoffman's character is a little more interesting. I don't what Queen Latifah's part was supposed to add, but it didn't do anything for me.
Maggie Gyllenhaal's part deserves an extra paragraph. Her character is quite misplaced in most of her actions, and the romance between her and the IRS man is one of the most annoying and misplaced I've ever seen. And that's a shame, because she is a terrific actress with charisma in spades.
Only a couple moments in the film were pretty okay (such as the one with the 'flower'), so I'll be (just) a little lenient.
3 out of 10.