Dennis Quaid piles on the pounds for this dysfunctional family tale, playing a disgruntled, widowed academic whose life has gone stale in every possible way. Though worshipped by his uptight, intellectual daughter (Juno's Ellen Page), he is increasingly estranged from his aspiring poet son (Ashton Holmes) and unfulfilled by work. The unhappy threesome stay locked in their routines until an accident leaves Quaid requiring the chauffeur services of his layabout adopted brother Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) It also brings him to the renewed attention of former student-turned-doctor Sarah Jessica Parker, which displeases his possessive daughter. Written by novelist Mark Jude Poirier, this funny, occasionally poignant look at people who should know better is directed with a sure hand by commercials whiz Noam Murro. However, for much of the time, it ends up engaging the head rather than the heart.

Professor Lawrence Wetherhold might be imperiously brilliant, monumentally self-possessed and an intellectual giant -- but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy.