This is one of those films that I almost turned off a couple times, but got hooked back in with the humor and wit. It's a definite off-the-wall romantic comedy with enough quirkiness to make the characters and the story lovable. The thing that kept turning me off was the constant reference to the need for therapy, therapists, and over-analysis by Ira, the main character who is neurotic and has been in the therapy system his whole life. Fortunately, everything else the movie has to offer helps alleviate the constant stress I experienced thinking over and over "just let it go, Ira! Choose to be happy and accept your wife and her love and imperfections!!!!" I think, for the general masses, this wouldn't be a huge issue, and overall would be seen as an enjoyable, quirky film with a great amount of humor, just enough drama, and a good touch of heart.

The protagonist of this film, Ira Black (Chris Messina)--who has two analysts for parents and was preconceived as the glue for their upcoming marriage--is studying to become an analyst himself, and has been in therapy with the same analyst for 12 years. (The movie emphasizes the difference between psychiatrists and analysts, which boils down to: psychiatrists talk, while analysts listen--or daydream, plot infidelities, write their Hannuka cards, etc., etc.) Every day Ira breakfasts at a diner, but can never order by combo number, and always calls back his long-suffering "Greek waiter" (Spiro Malas) multiple times with wishy-washy additions and deletions (Ira never "knows" his own mind). Feeling fat, he decides to join New York City's famed Paris Health Club (actually used extensively as a filming site), where he meets serial nymphomaniac Abby (Jennifer Westfeldt), who always knows her mind--and takes out food exclusively from McDonald's. Beyond being seen with the offerings of the Golden Arches several times (and extolling the virtue of eating your fries while they're fresh and hot), Abby's ad jingle-producing dad Michael Willoughby (Fred Willard) apparently gets a piece of the McDonald's ad account. Maybe the video stores and down-loaders should be required to couple this rental with Morgan Spurlock's SUPERSIZE ME to counteract IRA & ABBY'S clearest message: if you eat at independent restaurants with character you're a neurotic wimp, but if you're loyal to McDonald's you're a fun-loving problem-solver who's good in bed. Hopefully this flick's producers (Declan Baldwin, Ged Dickersin, Ilana Levine, Stu Pollard, Douglas G. Smith, Jennifer Westfeldt, and Brad Zions) are each getting a lifetime of free clogged arteries--oops, I mean free food--from McDonald's.

It's the kind of movie I hate with every fiber of my being: overwritten in a self-congratulatory way, talky with nobody saying anything interesting or substantial, whiny, preposterous in every detail -- not a single word or action bears any resemblance to anything that has ever happened on planet Earth -- profoundly unfunny, overstuffed with sketched-out characters but lacking a single one to care for, much less like or root for, replete with undertalented actors and a couple of talented ones all mugging their way through (why bother being human when the script is SO false?), predictable whenever it thinks it's taking a chance, trite when it thinks it's being original. It takes place entirely in Movieland -- that it gets its Manhattan geography all wrong on Ira's opening-credits walk through the city was the first clue -- and succeeds almost uncannily at producing the opposite of the desired reaction in every scene: when the filmmakers aimed for sweetness and romance, they instead delivered crassness and vulgarity; when they aimed for Woody Allen-style neuroticism, they found only snarkiness and endless therapist clichés; when they aimed for laughs, they got only stone faces from my audience. It's this year's equivalent of 2001's "All Over the Guy," with Judith Light in the Andrea Martin role. Avoid it like the plague.

We saw the film at its LA Film Festival premier on June 23, and it is terrific! The film follows Ira (Chris Messina), a neurotic therapist-to-be through his chance meeting and resulting relationship with warm, free-spirited Abby (Jennifer Westfeldt). Messina's performance was convincing and great fun. Jennifer Westfeldt is more beautiful - and just as engaging - as she was in Kissing Jessica Stein. The combination of Judith Light and Robert Klein as Ira's parents was perfect. Klein's comedic timing is a great complement to Westfeldt's brilliant script. Fred Willard is Abby's dad, and his performance is terrific as well. This is the most intelligent and enjoyable romantic comedy that I have seen in years.