The Answer Man (2009)

Lauren Graham and Jeff Daniels in The Answer Man

In The Answer Man, Arlen Faber (Jeff Daniels) 
isn't any old celebrity author. Twenty years ago, he wrote the mega-best-selling book Me 
and God, in which he served up folksy New Age self-help epigrams that convinced a lot of people he had a direct pipeline to the Almighty. And now? He's rich and famous, and also a bitter, disillusioned recluse — a Mitch Albom who turned into J.D. Salinger. Daniels plays Arlen with a kind of cuddly crankiness; he makes him a jerk who just needs a hug. Arlen's salvation plays out with tender cloying predictability, though Lauren Graham, as the chiropractor who falls for him, has more spark than the movie deserves. C

See all of this week's reviews