There wasn't a laugh or even a smile in this jerky, disconnected try. It's an astonishing waste of several top personalities such as Goodman, Arkin and Tomei. I find it astonishing that these three, all my faves, managed to fail completely in this misbegotten outing.
A good deal of the problem here is the usual Hollywood detachment from reality. For example, Helms plays a divorced man paying child support for two uninteresting and one offensive (supposedly funny) children. His career consists of various low wage retail style jobs that he can't secure now that he's been replaced in his previous job by a robot. Despite him making maybe $9/hr. And paying all that child support he lives in a large home in suburbia. I suppose that's Hollywood's idea of how the poor masses exist.
Strange looking Oliva Wilde plays the type of woman who you'd meet on a blind date, are first attracted to her looks but as soon as she speaks, you arrange for a rescue call to get you out of there. She's so repulsive that the romance she's supposedly part of doesn't work at all.
Then we have the crippled, demented old lady who grows lucid for most of the movie spouting gobbets of wisdom throughout. Without going into detail, the upshot is not one likeable character or setup. I didn't even warm to Steve Martin playing the dog.
In the end, a failure at every front and an astonishing unlikeable performance from an array of top players.
A good deal of the problem here is the usual Hollywood detachment from reality. For example, Helms plays a divorced man paying child support for two uninteresting and one offensive (supposedly funny) children. His career consists of various low wage retail style jobs that he can't secure now that he's been replaced in his previous job by a robot. Despite him making maybe $9/hr. And paying all that child support he lives in a large home in suburbia. I suppose that's Hollywood's idea of how the poor masses exist.
Strange looking Oliva Wilde plays the type of woman who you'd meet on a blind date, are first attracted to her looks but as soon as she speaks, you arrange for a rescue call to get you out of there. She's so repulsive that the romance she's supposedly part of doesn't work at all.
Then we have the crippled, demented old lady who grows lucid for most of the movie spouting gobbets of wisdom throughout. Without going into detail, the upshot is not one likeable character or setup. I didn't even warm to Steve Martin playing the dog.
In the end, a failure at every front and an astonishing unlikeable performance from an array of top players.