Saw this flick this weekend (shouldn't we have a movie review page?) and thought I'd write about it. Not typically something I would've gone to the theater to see, but had a good time nonetheless.
The premise goes Dennis Quaid is an English professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He's also a bitter widower and generally kind of a butthole. His 17 year old daughter, played by Ellen Page is the poster child Young Republican whose only role model is a miserable, pompous, and jaded old man. Thomas Haden Church plays Dennis Quaid's adopted step-brother who's only good at getting into trouble and shirking responsibility. He comes back into the Quaid and Page's life when Quaid has his drivers license medically suspended by....Sarah Jessica Parker who plays Dennis Quaid's physician and his one time student.
Essentially, the movie is about Quaid pulling out of his funk, realizing how messed up his daughter really is, and trying his hardest to convince his brother how much of a loser he is when Quaid himself doesn't have much going for him. He's got son who goes to CMU that seems to be going about his own life without him. The son seems to be the closest thing to a grounded person in the movie but is just as socially defunct as the rest of the family. Truthfully, Thomas Haden Church, steals just about every scene he's in and I think Ellen Page is going to be one of the best actresses this decade.
So this is probably one of those art house flicks you'd take a date on but it's not necessarily uplifting or depressing. It's just good actors doing their thing and one guy realizing that he can't just mope about through life without affecting everyone around him.