The lightweight, feel-good saga of a man carelessly adrift in middle age without really recognizing how beleaguered he's become. A half-slate at the local community college opens new horizons and introduces him to colorful, inspirational new figures, which he takes in stride admirably. It's soft rock for the cinema, a shallow little story that's aloof and happy but not terribly gripping or important.

Tom Hanks is fine in the lead role, throwing back to the classic everyman archetype that brought him fame and fortune, and his chemistry with Julia Roberts (a bitter, icy communications professor) is more comfortable and real than what we saw in their previous collaboration, 2007's Charlie Wilson's War.

Beyond a few passages that may or may not have come from a pamphlet on existentialism and a few strangely unexplored plot threads, there's very little to it. Mildly funny, warm and friendly, it's also quite bland and thoroughly whitewashed.