Better Than Average
Another example of how a decent director can manage to get a good performance out of usually 'over the top' comedians by simply reigning them in. (Jack Black in Nacho Libre, Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine, Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love come to mind immediately). Not quite as good as most of the recent crop of esoteric independent films that have been crawling out of the woodwork in recent years (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine, I Heart Huckabees, etc etc) with oddball plotlines and a leap of faith and imagination by the audience required, - but overall, I think it works and is an enjoyable film on many levels. Maggie Gyllenhaal is appealing as the romantic lead, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman give workable but unmemorable performances, and Will Ferrell does a fine job as the bland everyman lead - the one character which seemed totally unnecessary (except as someone for Emma Thompson to converse with) was Queen Latifah who seemed totally out of her element here.