Eye Candy #284 - "Meet Bill"

Meet Bill:  Bill (Aaron Eckhart) is a loser.  He’s out of shape, slovenly, has a do-nothing job that was created specifically for him by his father-in-law, and he’s just learned that his wife (Elizabeth Banks) is cheating on him with a local TV news personality (Timothy Olyphant, who‘s not given much to do here).  And he’s just figured that all out.  In the course of this mid-life crisis, he becomes an advisor to a young high school student who wants to help Bill get back on the horse, so to speak, and get his wife back, showing Bill the joys of toking up, fireworks, and making wives jealous.  Felt like a retread of some of the same beats from “American Beauty” to me, but it did have some good moments (Eckhart has a great meltdown moment discussing how all work, regardless of your job, sucks).  Eckhart was solid as usual, and Jessica Alba has never been cuter, and of course I already lust after Elizabeth Banks so she can do no wrong.   But the film wraps up WAY too quickly.  Almost feels like they ran out of shooting budget at the 90 minute mark and went “Okay, turn off the cameras.  We can’t shoot that other 30 pages of script.“  They slapped an ending that is as unsatisfying as it is abrupt.  Woodchuck sez, “Could have been great.  Instead it’s just okay.”