Between the two of them, they’re a complete, functioning person, and that’s why they work so well together. Early on in the movie, Ronny tells his lovely girlfriend, Beth (Jennifer Connelly), that Nick is his hero, mostly because Nick has been with his wife and college sweetheart, Geneva (Winona Ryder), for 20 years. It’s a simple enough story made needlessly complicated by all involved in the production. In an attempt to be too many things to too many people, The Dilemma manages to be nothing to anyone. Despite being sold as a comedy and having a few moments of levity or attempted levity, The Dilemma is actually more of a drama. Actually, it’s not even a drama. The Dilemma is like a chick flick that just so happens to star Kevin James and Vince Vaughn. It’s a chick flick masquerading as a bromantic comedy. The Dilemma is attempting to be a Judd Apatow film, but without either the filth or the heart to pull it off. Everyone else in the film, from Ronny to Nick and Beth to Geneva, makes little to no lasting impact. They’re not really the sort of characters you can care for or root for Nick’s a workaholic, Beth’s a blank page, Ronny’s a scumbag, and the less said about Geneva, the better. Susan is a likable character who seems very interesting, which is why she’s not allowed to be on screen for 107 of the film’s 112 minutes. The only really likable character in the film, aside from Queen’s Susan, is Ronny’s car. For a good portion of the movie, when Ronny is driving around playing detective, I wait for something awful to happen to that beautiful, classic American muscle car. If you’re going to give me a drama, I can’t care more about an inanimate object than I do any of the living people. If you’re going to give me a comedy, I need to be laughing so hard at what may happen to the car that I won’t be sad to see it damaged. Without any centering emotion and with a lack of appealing madcap comedy, like what worked so well in Night Shift, what ends up on the screen is a technically competent mess from a director who knows better. Or who used to know better. Maybe 10 years away from the comedy genre (and 20 years from his last good comedy flick) has sucked the skill out of Howard. Maybe he’s just a much better director of drama these days. Who knows? It doesn’t help Howard’s chances that the script, by Allan Loeb (Things We Lost In The Fire, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) is completely humor-free. Then again, there’s not much you can expect from the guy that wrote The Switch. He’s done good work, just not good comedies. Maybe he should stick to dramas and leave the laughter game to folks that can produce a funny script. I’ve never seen a movie theater be so silent for so long. I actually heard individual kernels of popcorn being dropped onto the floor behind me. If it wasn’t for Queen Latifah, nobody would have managed to break the uncomfortable silence. US Correspondent Ron Hogan’s only dilemma concerning The Dilemma was whether or not to call it the worst comedy of the new year or the worst drama of the new year. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here.