The most unfortunate thing about this movie is the waste of, particularly, an excellent actress like Susan Sarandon but also for wasting Seann William Scott, who has been far better in other comedies (even the American Pie series had more humor and came across as more realistic than Mr. Woodcock) and has also done well in some dramatic/action movies, with comedic qualities in his performance, as in Bulletproof Monk and the Rundown. The only actor in the movie who is enhanced by this entire affair is Amy Poehler, who is far better used here than she ever was in Blade of Glory. She gives an excellent, scene-stealing, scene-chewing performance as Maggie, the press agent and "handler" for Scott's inspirational How To book author character, John Farley.<br /><br />Sarandon plays his mom and its an age appropriate role for her and she looks fabulous even as a past middle age adult mother in a small, mid-west town. Her over the top roles in projects like Enchanted, or Children of Dune are better 'paycheck' roles for her than projects such as this or say Speed Racer.<br /><br />The movie is technically proficient from a mainstream studio release point of view. However, it suffers from being a movie that, at least theatrically, barely made its production budget back (approximately $24M, not counting the cost of prints or promotion) -- and you have to wonder how much of that cost went to the director, who clearly did a by the numbers performance (many TV movies, even on basic cable, have more interesting elements in them) and a script that took every simple or easy way out. The script is credited on screen to two writers. It feels and comes across as if they sat around one afternoon thumbing through their old yearbooks, calling a few friends up for some more diverse gym-teacher horror stories, cobbled together the most basic of son/former boyfriend/co-worker/next door neighbor attempts to break couple that seem unsuitable at the start, succeeds, but in the standard-issue feel good ending, they must be brought back together at the last possible moment so the credits can roll on a happy popcorn satiated crowd.<br /><br />It's predictable, its boring, it's not even mildly funny. There is one part where I laughed out loud, towards the end, a physical bit of comedy involving a pot hole and the Thorton character, Woodcock. However, laughing out loud was reflexive to what was otherwise a set up and joke that one could see a mile away. Just like a pie in the face, one laughs, but it's not what one wants to pay $10 for, plus parking, baby-sitter, gas, popcorn, etc.<br /><br />Best to avoid, even on basic cable for free.