Curtis Hanson's amiable campus comedy, based on Michael Chabon's novel of the same name, is generally entertaining and wholly forgettable. Michael Douglas is winningly seedy as Grady Tripp, a stereotypically idiosyncratic creative writing professor and one-hit-wonder novelist, and Frances McDormand as his married girlfriend and Toby Maguire as the new wonder-boy writer are fine with the little material they're given. The movie's sole appeal lies in its nostalgic pandering to the little wannabe published novelist and adulterous joint-passing tenured slacker in all of us, but in order for any of us to make it there we'll have to turn out better stories than this one.