This film came bearing Great Promise, what with the Golden Globe awards (Film, Director and Screenplay), the Directors Guild of America nomination and all those Oscar nominations. And so I was a little disappointed. And I'm still not sure what the title means.

Maybe you need to be Merkin to understand it properly. On the plus side, it is good (as in, emotional) in places, and funny in other places. [Interesting aside: different people in the audience found different things funny. So we had patches of laughter around the cinema at different times.] The performances are generally good, varying from subtle share-the-joke-with-the-audience to over the top when required.

What bothered me was two things: the meandering storyline, which in the final analysis is about two dysfunctional families and their various sexual problems; and the morality (or rather, lack thereof) and attitudes expressed in the film. To whit:

• Smoking dope is a perfectly normal, everyday occurance. It may be bad for your health but is not illegal. Everyone is doing it, even your dad.
• Parents are to be treated with the contempt they deserve.
• Tell parents what they want to hear and they'll leave you alone. They are too stupid to see through the lies.
• If you husband catches you having an affair, it is his fault and the appropriate remedy is to shoot him.
• It is okay for a father to have sex with his daughter's school friend, except if she is a virgin.
• If someone rejects your romantic overtures, the appropriate remedy is to shoot him.
• Gay-bashers are closet homosexuals.
• Selling drugs is a perfectly normal and highly profitable career choice.
• It is okay to be an accomplice to a crime, as long as you can blackmail the perp.
• Girls with large breasts still need breast enlargement.

The film is supposed to be about average middle-American families. If the above is typical of such families, then all I can say is, God Help America. I just didn't buy this basic premise of the film, and this may be what lowered my valuation of it, in the same way that I didn't buy the basic premise behind The Blair Witch Project.

So I am not sure if this film is meant to be a look at contemporary Merkin (or maybe, Californian) families and life style, or someone's wakeup call: "Hey People, is this what we are becoming?" Or maybe I was just fed up because it was the second film in a week promoting the idea that smoking dope is normal behaviour for middle-class America. Has Hollywood found a new crusade, now that they have been so successful with the notion that it is okay for children (read: teenagers) to be having casual sex?

The story focuses on your apparently typical and happy Merkin family (dual income, one child with the Hollywood stereotyped FU attitude, no pets), and what happens when daddy hits his male-menopause mid-life crisis. The catalyst is when daddy meets daughter's school friend. (Odd that they are such good friends but never met the families before...)

He gets the hots for her. Soon, he starts behaving irresponsibily -- or finding himself, depending on your point of view.

This causes even more stress in the home than the sexless marriage already had. Meanwhile, his wife develops a sex-driven relationship with a business opponent, for no apparent reason.

From then on, things go downhill. Throw in the new neighbour, who is into dope and America's Weirdest Home Videos (made by himself) and the situation slowly builds to its telegraphed yet unexpected climax.

One criticism which could be levelled at the producers is that although the adults also have sex scenes, the only frontal nudity is limited to teenage breasts. Some might view this as exploitation.

Other critics I spoke to had high praise for the film, so maybe I missed something, or was just in a bad mood. But I really don't think that it deserves the Oscar for best film.

-- Ian Douglas