Checking Out

Though hypochondria has provided many a funny movie moment--most notably in the work of Woody Allen--CHECKING OUT is too messy a film to maintain viewer interest in the subject. When his childhood friend and boss (Allan Havey) dies of a heart attack at a company barbecue after setting up one of his frequent tasteless jokes ("Why don't Italians have barbecues?"), advertising man Ray Macklin (Jeff Daniels) becomes a raging hypochondriac, convinced his own heart is about to fail. Between visits to physicians, Ray is obsessed with discovering the answer to the Italian barbecue question, as if it were the antidote to death. Not surprisingly, Ray's madness complicates hi...