Meet Bill: Critic Reviews

Even a hilarious turn by Kristen Wiig as the owner of a doughnut company can't save this cliched, meandering story from playing like American Beauty lite.

Male midlife crisis presents as pathological self-loathing in Meet Bill, an imperative to which the only sane response is: No thanks.

Meet Bill misfires on multiple levels, but its foremost mistake is focusing on a sad-sack underachiever. Bill doesn't believe in himself, so why should we?

Husband-and-wife helmers Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann make all the wrong choices, from the grimacing they've encouraged their large (and largely wasted) cast to indulge in, to the musical riffs that signal each and every dramatic beat.

When all is said and done, Bill is let down by Bill.

The story of a man (Aaron Eckhart) grappling with middle-age ennui at work and at home feels done to death, as does the distracting addition of a spunky rich-kid high schooler.

Discovering your real self is the theme of Meet Bill, in which Bill has to work hard to finally meet himself

Not even a solid performance can keep the script's problems at bay.

It doesn't take long for Bill to suddenly veer off course into total impenetrability, where the characters become a blur, the hacky visual poetry is rolled out, and the plot drops dead.

Not awful or offensive, but pretty weak broth nonetheless.

It tries hard to mimic the arch tone of the best suburban tragicomedies (American Beauty, et al.), but a surfeit of stock characters, double-wide plot holes and heavy-handed symbolism ruins the effect.

As the movie goes on, you actually end up rooting for this schmuck to take charge of his life, and in a way, the movie is sort of inspiring.

For those whose idea of hilarity is an adult and a kid throwing fireworks at each other, then getting stoned and playing piggyback in the mall, this movie should be a refreshing tonic.

This movie never should have seen the light of day.

Takes scattershot aim at all manner of appropriate targets-the vapid nature of local television news, the perceived stigma of standing out from the pack in America, the dilemma of dreams deferred and abandoned-but rarely hits the comic bull's-eye.

Clunky and smug, Meet Bill isn't convincing for one moment.

...basically entertaining yet entirely forgettable.