Ron Howard (“Apollo 13”, “The Da Vinci Code”) is in the director’s chair for this charming comedy, titled “Parenthood”. Although, it could easily be called something such as “Life” as it deals with a variety of topics including sex, jobs and fun.

Meet the Buckman family. They’re just a normal family with normal problems. Steve Martin (“The Man With Two Brains”, “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”) stars as Gil Buckman, who wants to help his son become as normal as can be, get a promotion in his job and become the perfect father his dad never was. Also, we see other members of the family such as Nathan Huffner (Rick Moranis “Ghostbusters”, “Ghostbusters II”), who wants to make his daughter 100x smarter than any average kid.

I really like how charming Steve Martin is and he is suited to this ordinary guy role very well. It’s bizarre how he did this good film about parenting and then years later, his “Cheaper By The Dozen” films were so bad. Martin is a great comedic actor and not far behind the likes of Robin Williams (“Good Will Hunting”). He has many highlights here such as playing a cowboy at his son’s birthday party, having vivid and strange dreams about the future and celebrating a baseball win. My favourite character is definitely the one played by Moranis as he’s a really good comedic actor as well and the role is perfect for him. The only characters/actors that let the side down are Keanu Reeves (“The Matrix”) as Tod Higgins and Joaquin Phoenix (“Signs”) as Gary Buckman as they just don’t work.

Ron Howard has made a terrific film here but it isn’t without its flaws. There are several jokes that don’t work, there are some dud characters and while the ending is good, it doesn’t seem quite as witty or funny as I had anticipated. All-round it’s a very funny look at life, among Steve Martin’s best work and contains some great music by Randy Newman (“Toy Story”).