Dan Foreman (Quaid) is a 52-year-old who works as head of advertising for a leading sports magazine, which is suddenly bought by a media tycoon (McDowell). Dan's new corporate-assigned boss is Carter (Grace), a marketing expert with no sales experience who's exactly half Dan's age. Fortunately, Carter's smart enough to know how essential Dan is, but his ruthless corporate efficiency drive doesn't make many friends. And it's about to get worst when his marriage falls apart and he falls for Dan's college-age daughter (Johansson).

This film refreshingly refuses to become a silly comedy, even though one seems ready to erupt at every turn. The more slapstick sequences actually keep their feet on the ground, as it were, combined with a script that's not afraid to layer the characters and take a more thoughtful route through its comical premise. Weitz directs with a solid hand--telling camera angles, strong editing choices and a nice sense of balance that avoids goofiness for a more intelligent, resonant and, yes, truly funny style of comedy.

Quaid balances the humour and drama effortlessly--he's charming, sexy, bedraggled and annoyed, as anyone would be in his position. And he fills the performance with telling details that make it very real. Grace does a nice spin on his nerdy persona, becoming more intriguing as the film progresses. And together there's a superb, evolving chemistry between them. Johansson is also terrific as the soulful young woman trying to find herself while stirring up everyone around her.

There's such a wonderful dynamic at work in this film--a shifting balance between the characters' work and home lives, authentic rhythms within relationships and a refusal to fall into movie cliches (although one rousing speech scene comes dangerously close). Along the way Weitz is making a very strong statement about the callous insensitivity of corporate culture. And we feel it because he's created people we engage with beautifully.