Gary’s been seeing the woman of his dreams, then wakes up and curses each day he spends toiling away on promo jingles. It’s a comedown for this former ’90s pop sensation, but hard for us to have much sympathy or to care very much whether he gets it together with the submissive feminine figment of his imagination.
The who-gives-a-toss factor is leaping off the scale in this self-indulgent, poorly dramatised début from Paltrow frère, who gives sis Gwyneth a thankless role as the sensible but very whiny partner to Martin Freeman’s befuddled protagonist, casts Simon Pegg as his obnoxious best mate in a desperate bid to make him seem more amiable, and pores over translucently clad Penélope Cruz in sundry repetitive reveries. Skimming through comedy, satire and cautionary tale, it’s all somewhat vague – exasperatingly so when suggestive artiness seems to have been intended. Not as clever as it thinks.