The Dilemma: Press reviews

'Hit-and-miss for Howard. The tone flits, sometimes uncomfortably, from Vaughn-fuelled laugh-fest to relationship drama, but it's a winner compared to many of the clunkly comedies out there.'

'The movie is not all that deep, but it does go further than many of its kind in acknowledging the hurt and difficulty that are the deep wellsprings of any comedy worthy of the name. Which, to come full circle, is what "The Dilemma," against all expectations, turns out to be.'

'The best performance comes from Queen Latifah as a frenzied "automotive consultant".'

'Ron Howard, only remotely comfortable in strictly circumscribed genres, lands us in a none-of-the-above no man's land, turning it into a suspenseless marathon of misguided male loyalty. Nothing's funny. Nothing's real.'

'Pious, intense and often hectoringly implausible, the movie runs on empty while making loud "vroom-vroom" sounds.'

'The unknowability of other peoples' relationships is a decent jump-off for grown-up comedy, but this collapses into comic mayhem, falling-out-of-trees slapstick, snore-bore misunderstandings and a sizeable distance between laughs.'

'Yes, there are a handful of interesting insights into friendship but when the film aims for funny it falls flat and the faltering romance between Vaughn and Connelly is never developed nearly enough to make us care.'

'Basically a chick flick for guys – a picture about emotions, friendships, loyalty and growth in which the men are the prime movers – which is a pretty novel approach for a mainstream studio picture.'

'It's hard to get too excited about a film you feel like you've seen a hundred times before, but was funny in parts'

'Howard, directing with his trademark bland impersonality, seems not to notice the mismatch and gives us the worst of both worlds: a comedy without laughs, and a drama without tension.'

'Rather less fun than a badly executed coronary bypass.'

'Sabotaged by a bungling script and an astonishingly obnoxious performance by his leading man (this is the hapless Vaughn's fourth turkey in a row, following Fred Claus, Four Christmases and Couples Retreat), Howard, who once won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, comes across as a clueless amateur.'