Much of it feels synthetic and crude, more the result of engineering than inspiration. The [filmmakers] put a commercial glaze on everything, as if a future TV series were taking over the movie even as it was unreeling in the projector.

This comedy's warm and soothing nature will give mainstream audiences in these dysfunctional-family times a perfect holiday uplift.

Although overly sappy in places and probably 20 minutes too long, this Robin Williams-in-drag vehicle provides the comic a slick surface for doing his shtick, within a story possessing broad family appeal.

Rather than settling for cheap laughs, the film invests in a deeply felt story about fatherhood, family, and the messy realities of divorce.