The Oranges (2012)

Hugh Laurie, offering up an abashed suburban version of the jaded rascal appeal he had on House, plays David, a middle-aged New Jersey husband and father who is drawn into an affair with the gorgeous 24-year-old daughter (Leighton Meester) of his two best friends. What starts off as a neighborhood scandal becomes a liberating thing for everyone involved — an attitude that seems as if it's trying to be oh so European, and might have been had the director, Julian Farino, not been working so hard to convince us of the Deep Inner Goodness of everyone involved. Catherine Keener, as Laurie's wife, suffers with spiky relish, and Meester is charming without ever convincing us that she digs this older dude. C+