Title: Zen and the Art of Underachievement
Product review: I'm still waiting for this one to go somewhere. With a loaded cast and a simple, engaging direction, it's got the right pieces in place to build a sleepy, optimistic comedy about the nice guy (a very dude-like Paul Rudd) who almost always finishes last. Instead, it wastes most of its time egging on the self-centered, spoiled women around him, basking in the glow of their vapid, hollow lives while they carelessly take advantage of his somber situation. It's humorous at heart, if not particularly funny, and often steps away just as things seem to be about to turn the corner and erupt into wild chaos. The only thing more depressing than watching Rudd's poor, well-intentioned, passive hippie get repeatedly stomped into the mud is seeing how insufferably predictable the plot can become. A total paint-by-numbers watercolor job that doesn't seem to mean the happy message it throws up on-screen before the credits.
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