This is a fun movie but... it yaps around the ankles of its subject without ever moving in for a decent-sized, satisfying bite.

I'm told that several of these characters are easily recognisable to insiders, but outside that small coterie there's still a great deal to enjoy about Sidney's fish-out-of-water exploits.

Weide bypasses the impulse to push the film at the usual breakneck comedy movie pace, allowing the conflicts to build slowly and with more thought than the film's premise might otherwise suggest.

Comedies like this are rare for offering tangible characters we care about and comedy that affixes some significance to our periodic need for base humor.