[7]

When two down-on-their-luck brothers inherit an old house valued in the millions, the only thing standing between them and riches is the tiny little mouse that lives there. Nathan Lane and Lee Evans star as the bungling brothers in this somewhat dark family comedy penned by Adam Rifkin (The Dark Backward, Detroit Rock City) and directed by Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean). Production values and this calibre of talent aren’t usually so high on a film promoted as a kiddie flick — so don’t let the marketing fool you. I knew this movie wasn’t your typical, asinine family fare from the opening scene. Lane and Evans’ characters are established at their father’s funeral, where they lose their hold on the casket, which slides down a steep set of stairs, smacks into a car, and catapults the corpse high up into the air and into an open manhole.

Verbinski, in his feature debut and with something to prove to the world, doesn’t miss an opportunity to embellish the movie in all the right places. The period (or timeless?) production design, costumes, and music by Alan Silvestri are all top-notch. He also employs a lot of inventive camera angles and visual effects to help us get inside the mind of the troublesome mouse. The two leads do great jobs, and are surrounded by a fun roster of well recognized character actors, including Maury Chaykin, William Hickey, Michael Jeter, Ernie Sabella, Ian Abercrombie, and Christopher Walken.

Most important of all is that I cared about both the brothers and the mouse. I didn’t want to see the mouse killed or even evicted, but I also didn’t want the brothers to continue their lives of misery. A family flick that can make a grown-up care about shit like that is something special indeed.