I’ve been a Jason Bateman fan since he first popped up on Silver Spoons, playing the smart-ass sidekick of Ricky Schroeder.  They spun his character off to a one-season wonder called It’s Your Move.  This should have been the clue as to how his career would unfold.  Bateman has always thrived more in situations where he was the supporting actor and not the lead.  His timing and reactions make him the perfect straight guy for wackiness around.

Since Arrested Development folded, Bateman has been given two opportunities to headline a movie.  The first one, Extract, did not do well.  Granted, it was a Mike-Judge effort and those can be hit or miss; Office Space hit, this was a miss.  The second one is the subject of this review.  To help him carry the load, The Powers That Be cast Jennifer Aniston as his love interest — not a bad gig for Jason Bateman.

I had some time to kill between getting off work and going to a function, so I decided to catch a late-afternoon showing at the Premier Cinema in Fashion Square Mall.  I grabbed my snacks and headed in.

The story centers around Bateman’s character, despite the title of the movie and the ads.  He is a guy in love with his best friend but unable to tell her.  What unfolds is perhaps, for me, the most depressing comedy I have ever seen.  Depressing because the story does not contain many laughs, and depressing because it hits too close to home.  Aniston and Bateman do a great job of acting and I feel both were well cast.  Unfortunately, for me, the movie fails at the point of trying to figure out why it was made.  All it does is depress guys like me and make women similar to Aniston’s character question the intentions of all their male friends (of course I tend to side with Billy Crystal from When Harry Met Sally on this subject).

My advice:  Skip it; outside of good acting jobs, this movie has nothing to offer you as a movie-goer…