Talk about avoidance behavior!
This "blocked" author builds a couch out of unsold books from his earlier novel. At his getaway cabin on Montauk, he moves all the furniture into the yard. He chats endlessly with Captain Excellent, an imaginary friend who is a holdover from his childhood. Our writer hires a babysitter to come to the cabin for a couple of hours a week even though he has no children. He won't "pick up" when his wife calls from the city, nor will he return her calls. He is stuck on the opening line to his new book AND he doesn't know what to do with his hands!
This movie has the potential to be endlessly boring, but in the skilled hands of writer/directors Kieran and Michele Mulroney along with the always dependable Jeff Daniels ("The Answer Man" and "The Look- out") as the writer, his midlife crisis is involving and entertaining. Emma Stone ("Zombieland") is the babysitter; she does most of the heavy lifting in this film, although I have to remind myself that Daniels makes his work look so easy, he probably does as much or more than Ms. Stone.
Lisa Kudrow ("Hotel for Dogs") is the baffled vascular surgeon married to our hero, while Kieran Culkin ("Lymelife") is the devoted friend who shadows our babysitter. A very buff Ryan Reynolds ("The Proposal"), complete with blue leotard, spandex, and blonde hair, is Captain Excellent, who very much wants to move on...
I may watch this again when the DVD becomes available, because there were bits of the dialogue that were hard to discern. Young American actors do NOT know how to articulate!
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