Drew Barrymore plays high-powered businesswoman Lindsey Meeks, who gets together with less-than-ambitious schoolteacher Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon). Both are 30 and neither is taken, so obviously each has problems. Lindsey’s issue is her job. Ben’s problem is that he’s a Red Sox fan.

While not the smartest written comedy, it isn’t the worst, either. It’s no Major League or anything, but it’s not bad either. Though I’m not a Red Sox fan, you can’t help but feel for Ben – he has liked the Sox for more than twenty years so he deserves something, right?

The biggest complaint that I have is that there really isn’t anything surprising here. Ben is a big baseball fan, and that’s his problem. Lindsey is a workaholic. They have to decide if it’s worth the tradeoff to be with each other. Of course the answer is yes, so they just have to work through it.

Rated PG-13, the movie is mostly okay for everyone, but there is some adult language that won’t be good for the younger set. The rest of the rating comes from crude humor and sexuality, much of which will probably go unnoticed. Frankly, most of the young ones will likely be bored with the movie anyway, so you won’t end up arguing over watching this one.

The thug-like character played by Penn is matched by Bacon’s police persona, and wouldn’t you know it? They knew each other as kids. As it turns out, Tim Robbins rounds at the trio as one of the friends who was abducted and abused one fine day while they were in the middle of some mischief making.

Penn’s character, Jimmy Markum, finds that his daughter is missing, and then that she is dead. Meanwhile, Bacon’s detective, Sean Devine claims the job of trying to figure out who did it – or at least find a reasonable suspect – before Markum uses his contacts to bring someone to justice.

Much of the film focuses on the loss of Penn’s eldest daughter and the process of figuring out just who killed her. One lead after another turns up empty, and exposes not only some pretty good acting all around, but a good story and an equally good directorial job (turned in by none other than Clint Eastwood – my he does a fine job behind the camera).

Time after time a promising avenue of investigation for either Devine or Markum seems to be the way that will lead to the ultimate answer, but then the other finds out about it, and it turns up empty. At the end it seems that the answer is at hand, and indeed justice is actually meted out, but it’s not exactly the ending that you’d expect, nor is it what should have been done either.

Almost strangely, there isn’t really a stand-out moment in this film. It won’t make you jump up and remember a particular moment. It’s just a fine effort all around. Not quite dark, but definitely gritty. Then again, the world we live in isn’t exactly spotless. I enjoyed the film. I don’t think I’d save it for watching later, as once you know the end there isn’t a ton of suspense to it – but certainly worth watching once.

Rated R for language and violence, and there is plenty of both here. It’s definitely not a movie for everyone, but if you can overcome the atmosphere, there’s a lot to like here.