Mama's Boy

Containing a plot similar to last year’s Mr. Woodcock, as well as having star Jon Heder play a slightly more cerebral version of his Napoleon Dynamite character, it’s likely much of Mama’s Boy may be fairly familiar to many who have seen either of those films. But, for what it’s worth, Mama’s Boy examines the changes self-centred man-child Jeffrey Mannus (Jon Heder) experiences as his mother (Diane Keaton) begins dating again. A belated coming-of-age story, Heder’s Mannus — 29 years of age and still living at home — finds compassion and courage through the feud with his mom’s new beau, self-help guru Mert Rosenblum (Jeff Daniels), and his own budding romantic friendship with indie folk singer Nora Flannigan (Anna Farris). While the selfish Mannus is a hard character to like, at times, Heder does play him for some good laughs. In fact, Mama’s Boy does contain some very funny moments, many of them improvised by the talented cast, as Canadian director Tim Hamilton points out on his commentary. Unfortunately, the movie also tends to become a little slow and boring, especially as they try to advance the narrative and build character. And despite Hamilton’s claims that his commentary is made for film buffs, it doesn’t go any deeper than the average director’s commentary, offering only a few insights into the filmmaking process. Where Hamilton’s interest really seems to lie, and the element of the movie that gets the most emphasis in the commentary, is on the soundtrack choices, which isn’t really surprising considering Hamilton got his start directing videos for the likes of the Barenaked Ladies, Crash Test Dummies, Ron Sexsmith and Rheostatics, amongst others. Aside from the director’s commentary, the DVD also contains some unnecessary deleted scenes and both the widescreen and full-screen versions of the film.