David Schwimmer's first starring role is an odd movie that really isn't comedy or a romance or a drama. There were jokes in it and there was drama with a really weird sexual relationship and there was romance, but never did the three come together to make a good movie. It is not a bad movie it just lacks direction.

So the movie is about Tom, played by David Schwimmer (Friends), who is a college graduate, and still unemployed and living at home. He gets a call from a woman who says that his friend had died and he is needed to be the Pallbearer in the funeral. The problem is that he doesn't remember the deceased at all. Neither does his two friends, Brad, played by Michael Rapaport (Hitch) and Scott, played by Michael Vartan (Never Been Kissed) who both have jobs and one is married and the other is engaged. After a painful ceremony, where Tom gives a painful Eulogy, he goes over to the house of the kid he doesn't remember and tries to help the mom, Ruth Abernathy, played by Barbara Hershey. This is where the story takes a weird turn. At a party before the funeral, Tom is reintroduced to a high school crush, Julie, played by Gwyneth Paltrow (Shallow Hal,) who doesn't remember him but eventually they start a friendship and more. After the funeral as he helps Ruth around the house, she in turns seduces Tom and has sex with him and starts a weird co-dependent relationship. Then the story just goes downhill from there.

Obviously this comedy goes to the world of the surreal when Tom has sex with Ruth. A story this odd has to be based on true events of some kind. I have no proof to this but when a story is so odd and out of place, it has to be based on true events of some kind. The old saying, truth is stranger than fiction. The story was written by Jason Katims and Matt Reeves. The story that they have created loses its focus once the sex happens because it is no longer a comedy but a border line Greek Tragedy of the Oedipus level. They do provide growth for the main character but I can't imagine him going through life without seeing a psychiatrist after some point over this whole relationship because the character wasn't a typical male asshole. It is just a weird choice to make as a screenwriter and it affects the movie.

Matt Reeves also directs this movie and he does nothing to help keep the focus of the movie. Again, after the sex the movie seems to wonder from one scene to another in an effort to show how Tom copes with these two women. Again like his script choices, his directorial choices are odd.

David Schwimmer does a good job, but he has done a character similar to this for 10 years. That character's name is Ross Geller. He does have the ability to go beyond this character, see Band of Brothers, but for this film he may have chosen to use his Ross character to give him some direction in this directionless movie. There is no growth for this character in the movie. In a drama you would like to see where a character makes mistakes and learns from them, or a tragedy in that the hero does not learn from his mistakes. Tom's losses are not so severe that it makes him a tragic hero. But in the beginning of the movie he has self doubt at a job interview and that correlates to his life. At the end of the movie, he got the girl but he has doubts about that, he gets a job but has doubts about that, and is moving and you can see he has doubts about that. No Growth. Why?

I find that the other actors save for Barbara Hershey, seemed lost in the movie. Some stuck to what they knew how to do and others seemed to stumble form scene to scene. Hershey did a fine job as a hurt mother who finds solace in his son's friend. The way the character is, I don't see her sleeping with Tom, but that is the script problem not the problem of the actress.

This movie is watchable but not good. If you want to see a directionless movie then this is your ticket.

Brian - the Naked Gun