Altman should go into retirement, as should Scorsese, and all the other former great directors who waste everyone's time with their new material.<br /><br />This overlong, unfunny near-mess starts off with a half-hour of pure tedium, in a sort of "Driving Miss Daisy" vein; with an old woman and her loyal black friend. Absolutely nothing happens in this part of the movie. I wish it had stayed that way, because once things start happening that is when the movie gets really annoying. (Like Sting's famous song-line: "Life was easy when it was boring", or "This film was easier when it was boring".) The overly familiar plot  already milked dry by the self-copying Hitchcock - of an innocent man accused of murder is just too stupid. It also sinks any chance that the gags and the humour might have; but the jokes are mostly mediocre so it doesn't matter. The other major problem with the movie is the rather "blah" cast: Julianne Moore, Glenn Close, O'Donnell, that "country" singer, and worst of all - Liv Tyler. While Moore is convincing as a semi-retarded woman, Close is simply annoying in yet another wicked-witch-from-the-South role. O'Donnell is typically bland, while Tyler is not only awfully miscast but a bad actress, as well. For Altman to cast her as some white-trash Southern girl is an insane move. Charles Dutton has a very cliché role: he is ultra-kind, pure goodness and is intellectually superior to just about everyone - without feeling that way. And what an annoying plot-point in the kid's father not wanting to listen to what the kid had witnessed. Plus, there is that annoying sporadic schmaltziness that any movie can do without. What a waste of time.