The title and the trailer present this film as a comedy. It follows several months in the life of Rose (Amy Adams), a 30-something single mother working as a house cleaner. She is sleeping with her high school boyfriend who is married to someone else. Rose’s sister, Norah (Emily Blunt) is a loser still living at home with her father. The father (Adam Arkin) is a salesman who has spent his life looking for the big score, and never finding it. Does that sound like a comedy? This film doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. It’s actually a slice of life, and like life consists of happiness and sorrow, pleasure and pain. The inability to classify the film seems to have bothered some of the critics, but it didn’t bother us. We were delighted with the characters and the story. Amy Adams is a favorite of ours and we have been impressed with her talent and charm every time we’ve seen her. When she smiles, it’s like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. She makes Rose seem valiant rather than pathetic. Adams and Blunt have great chemistry and elevate the story to something special. And of course, Arkin is Arkin. And that’s a good thing. I should mention Steve Zahn who plays Rose’s lover. We saw two films today (The Great Buck Howard was the other one.) and Zahn was in both of them. He played vastly different characters, but was excellent in both films. He is a versatile and under-appreciated actor. Emily Blunt was also terrific in both of the films we saw today. She has certainly fulfilled the promise she showed in The Devil Wears Prada. GRADE B+

Paul Rudd has to be one of the most likeable actors on screen today. (A recent Entertainment Weekly magazine put his face on their cover saying "It’s time to get to know the most lovable movie star on the planet.") Rudd is adept at playing sweet guys who aren’t afraid to admit they like such movies as Chocolat and The Devil Wears Prada. In this film, Rudd is Peter Kalven, a real estate agent with skill but no sizzle. While planning his wedding to Zooey (Rashinda Jones), he’s also trying to sell, without much success, the Lou Ferrigno mansion. Peter has always been a guy who gets along well with girls, but Zooey worries when she realizes that he has no real male buddies. Who will be his groomsmen? So Peter sets out to find some friends. After some disappointing and downright embarrassing "man-dates," he meets Sydney (Jason Segal) who is the perfect buddy for hanging out and kicking back. All three actors are gifted comedians and they are ably assisted by J.K. Simoons and Jane Curtin as Peter’s parents, Andy Samberg as his gay brother, and John Favreau and Jamie Pressley as Zooey’s friends. Ferrigno, himself, makes two amusing appearances. As is typical of comedies these days, there are plenty of raunchy comments and not-so-subtle sexual references. We liked Segal in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where he played a guy so sensitive he couldn’t stop crying when his girlfriend dumped him. In this film (as Manohla Dargis points out in her NY Time’s review), he is the quintessential man/boy: a would-be kid who just wants to hang out with the guys, even though most of his friends have moved on to families and careers. That makes him the perfect guy friend for the uptight Peter. Be sure to stay for the closing credits, because they include some funny scenes from the wedding reception. I’d give this enjoyable film a B. Gary laughed a bit more than I did, so he says B+ GRADE B+/B