Young Mel Coplin and his wife Nancy (Stiller and Arquette) haven't been able to agree on a name for their 4-month-old son. Since he was adopted, Mel is convinced he must find his real parents, and then he will know what to name the boy. With the help of an incompetent (but extremely luscious) student-psychologist and part-time adoption agent, Tina Kalb (Leoni), the Coplins set out from New York City on a cross-country trip to find Mel's folks. Tina will use the adventure for her dissertation project, so she volunteers to pay for the trip. Mel's nasty adoptive parents (Moore and Segal) are unsympathetic, and his real folks (Alda and Tomlin) turn up in remote New Mexico and are real oddballs. The sexual chemistry between Mel and Tina understandably heats up. Writer-director David O. Russell made this frantic 1996 comedy between his more unconventional "Spanking the Monkey" and "Three Kings." The cast is terrific and very game, but much of the humor consists of repetitive humilations of everyone, especially the hero, and can get to be a bit much.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
