Standing alone in good company...

Don't trust the trailer. If you do, you'll think it's a sappy, crappy movie. It's not.

Now, it's not a perfect movie either, admittedly, but it is a good, sweet, funny film that comes close to being an excellent film.

The basic plotline is that Sports America - a fictitious magazine along the lines of Sports Illustrated is bought out by a larger corporation, leaving the job of Dennis Quaid's fifty-one-year old executive in limbo. Quaid's eldest daughter (the inredible Scarlet Johanson) has just announced her intentions to transfer to the much more expensive NYU, and his wife has just informed him of her surprise pregnancy - not a great time to find that your new boss is twenty-six year old Topher Grace, and that he's eager to fire people to impress his bosses.

For the first two-thirds of the film, things roll along marvelously. Grace's out-of-his-element character becomes the heart of the film and begins an unintended romance with Johanson after his wife - the very ice queenish Selma Blair - leaves him, leaving him with nothing on which to focus other than his job. Quaid sees the new boss firing people he cares about, stripping the magazine that he helped build, and rocking his world even though he can do nothing to stop it because he doesn't want to endanger his job. Everything works for all characters concerned - the story works.

(Warning: spoiler coming)

And then the final act comes. Teddy K - the corporate raider who has bought Sports America - comes to visit. Dan pipes up but doesn't lose his job (?). And then Teddy K leaves - taking his company and going home. It's as if the entire movie never happened - Dan gets his job back and hires everybody who was just fired. Luckily everybody learns a little something along the way. The only resolution I cared for was that of the relationship between Grace and Johanson's characters. That worked. The set-up of the rest of the ending, though, didn't quite work. It was nice, it was feel good, but it didn't quite make sense.

(Warning: spoliers done now.)

So, it's not a great movie, but it's a really good one. And it's enjoyable. And it's even decently family friendly. And it might be a new type of film or just a failed third act - depends who you read. Either way, it's got Scarlet Johanson, so at least it's got that going for it, right?