Meet Bill (2007)

Number Rolled: 86

Movie Name/Year: Meet Bill (2007)

Genre: Comedy

Length: 93 minutes

Rating: R

Director: Bernie Goldmann, Melisa Wallack

Writer: Melisa Wallack

Actors: Aaron Eckhart, Jessica Alba, Elizabeth Banks, Logan Lerman, Holmes Osborne, Todd Louiso, Timothy Olyphant, Reed Diamond, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Andy Zou, Ana Lucasey, Constance Barron, Conor O’Farrell

This movie had so many actors and actress I love in it, that I had no choice but to put it on my instant queue; Jessica Alba, Elizabeth Banks, Logan Lerman and Timothy Olyphant. Unfortunately, the movie did not impress me.

Sad sack Bill, played by Aaron Eckhart, learns early on in the film that his wife, Jess (played by Elizabeth Banks), is cheating on him with news personality Chip, played by Timothy Olyphant. After a couple of outbursts, involving a video camera and some highly youtube worthy material, Bill finds himself worse off than he was at the very beginning of the movie – which was pretty bad to begin with. He finds himself forced to work with a high-school aged kid as a mentor and that kid (unnamed by the movie, played by Logan Lerman) begins to influence him to find his own identity.

The movie had its moments, but it wasn’t really my kind of comedy. I can see why others might enjoy it, but I spent the majority of the movie just thinking how wrong it was. And it was wrong on so many levels. I kept expecting child protective services or the cops to get involved in this very strange, borderline pedophilic, mentor-child relationship. There were parts I expect to see clips of on Law and order: SVU.

A couple of posts ago, I did a review on “The Forgotten.” In that review, I noted that a spectacular cast can sometimes take a not so great, unimaginative story and turn it into something amazing. However, I did say it was rare. In this case, we are faced with the rule, not the exception. You have a mediocre storyline with a bleh kind of wanna-be-American-Beauty script with an absolutely fantastic cast. It pretty much evens out into a mediocre movie.

How you feel about this movie will ultimately depend on your sense of humor.

Overall Opinion – 2.5/5