Flirting With Disaster

Wildly inspired, consistently hilarious comedy about the fragmentation of the American family in the '90s. Hapless yuppie Mel (Ben Stiller) sets out on a cross-country quest for his biological mom and dad while coping with the emotional demands of an aggrieved spouse (Patricia Arquette) and a would-be lover (Tea Leoni), not to mention his insanely overbearing adoptive parents (George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore, who's terrific). Highly unlikely plot complications never once threaten to throw this remarkably amusing film off-track, thanks to the narrative intelligence of writer-director David O. Russell (SPANKING THE MONKEY), the only member of the filmmaking bratpac...