The Real Howard Spitz

THE REAL HOWARD SPITZ is an artificially sweetened dessert, intended for small fries, that mistakes labored comedy for whimsy and homilies for revelations. It is directed so ineptly that you feel sorry for the hard-working cast, overlooking its deficiencies due to its puppydog eagerness to please.

Downtrodden detective novelist Howard Spitz (Kelsey Grammer) is perplexed when his agent Lou (Joseph Rutten) informs him his publisher no longer needs Howard's unpopular potboilers as a tax write-off. Locked into his identity as a writer, Howard explores more lucrative genres such as self-help tomes or children's books. Combing the children's library for inspiration, ...