It starts off strong, but slowly begins to deteriorate due to a) highly implausible choices and acts in the film’s second half, and b) exceeding repetitiveness.

There are good points: this is probably Steve Carrel’s best performance yet, and he’s easy to sympathize with. Messiah vet Sondre Lerche performs the soundtrack (and even performs on screen during the credits), and his work is suitably lovely. Dane Cook isn’t entirely wretched, and Juliette Binoche is equally lovely and frustrating as the woman Dan wants but can’t have.

But it all adds up to naught in the end, which is a shame. There’s little worse than a movie with a great first half and a bad second. It’s like watching a magician promise to show you a great trick, and then running away before he does it.

-Brian