AT FIRST, I ADMIRED HIS DEDICATION to his job. He had been with the company for decades, rising the ranks until he was promoted to an upper management position. We were friends and considering the background he grew up in, I was both impressed and proud of his achievements. In his newest position, he was now responsible for over 150 employees. Early in our careers we would get together quite often to talk about our jobs. We would swap stories about the crazy things we each saw taking place at our companies. I told him about the receptionist at my company who would be high on drugs while managing the switchboard. On her break she would go outside and smoke a joint or drop acid, come back to her desk, and continue with her work. She purposely wore tinted glasses so no one would see her eyes, but I could tell when she was high because she would always be giggling. The day I told him about this employee was the day he did not have a story that could top mine. In fact, occasionally, he would call my office just to hear the switchboard operator speak and guess if she were high. As far as I knew, no one else in the company knew about the operator’s extra activities during her breaks; she stayed with the company for four years before resigning to take a job somewhere else.      AS THE YEARS PASSED BY, MY friend and I had less and less contact. With each of his promotions, he was taking on increased responsibilities and less and less time off. His job started including some travel, to various branch locations where he had employees working remotely. It was a demanding job, but he was being appropriately compensated. I did notice; however, he was losing touch with several of his friends. After years of not being available they moved on without him. When it came time for him to retire, he mentioned he would work at getting back in touch with everyone. Sadly, he only enjoyed retirement for eight months before he passed away. I was sad that he never got to really enjoy living life because of all the constant working he had done. And the interesting thing, his story was familiar to me. I knew other people who wound up in similar situations. Another friend of mine’s wife divorced him because he was never around, always working. Like I used to mention in my yoga classes, yoga helps us with balance, balance in class and in life. You can see an example of what happens when someone is only focused on one aspect of their life in this comedy fantasy film.      AFTER HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER LEAVE for a trial separation, a workaholic must find a way to win them back. The answer may have already been sitting in their house under his fingertips. With Melissa McCarthy (The Little Mermaid, The Kitchen) as Flora, Paapa Essiedu (Men, The Lazarus Project-TV) as Bernard, Denee Benton (Our Friend, The Gilded Age-TV) as Julie, Jordyn McIntosh (Unprisoned-TV, Abbott Elementary-TV) as Eve and Alan Cumming (The Anniversary Party, Rare Objects) as Flaxman; this movie was meant to be a holiday charmer for this year. The cast was wonderful together and Melissa gave it her all, putting her comedic timing to clever use. However, the script was so basic that there was nothing new offered for the viewer. Many scenes were predictable and did not provide much laughter, or even chuckles. If it were not for the cast and especially Melissa, I would have gotten bored. Despite my misgivings, I thought this still was an easy and light picture to sit through and on some level, I enjoyed parts of it and especially liked the message it was trying to convey.

2 stars