The performers are fresh and offbeat, with the diminutive Peter Dinklage (Elf, The Station Agent) especially funny as a gay wedding planner named Benson Hedges.

| Apr 6, 2010

Showalter tackles his mission with energy and an upbeat attitude that makes him a winner as a lovable loser.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 29, 2005

Only when Williams is around does the movie seem human, true, and funny: Even in her slapstick there's pain. She's almost too good: It's not until she's left a scene that you realize the movie isn't working.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 24, 2005

| Original Score: B | Sep 24, 2005

There are enough laughs that those who enjoyed The 40-Year-Old Virgin might want to take The Baxter for a whirl.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 22, 2005

Showalter's Elliot, self-described as the kind of guy who gets hay fever just raking the leaves, never breaks out of the Baxter clich. Frankly, he makes a pretty good case for why the sad sack never gets the girl.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 18, 2005

Showalter all-too-slavishly follows the lock-step school of formula romance.

| Sep 16, 2005

Mildly cute while thoroughly forgettable, the chief achievement of The Baxter is it serves to remind viewers how thoroughly adorable Michelle Williams can be, even in something this inconsequential.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Sep 16, 2005

The Baxter has many of the ingredients of a good-natured indie date movie. But when the lead performance isn't one of them, it gets difficult to recommend.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 16, 2005

The Baxter is a self-conscious one-man show that obliterates the fine line between 'quirky' and 'annoying.'

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 16, 2005

No great shakes, The Baxter nonetheless has a quiet loopiness going for it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 15, 2005

While trying really hard to make Elliot a lovable loser, Showalter too often just renders him shrill and annoying.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 15, 2005

Michael Showalter is a funny man, but ... how to put this gently ... not a funny movie star.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 8, 2005

The problem with The Baxter is right there at the center of the movie, and maybe it is unavoidable: Showalter makes too good of a baxter. He deserves to be dumped.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 8, 2005

It's a terrible comedy and a worse movie, and I'm hoping, like its namesake, people leave this at the alter and look elsewhere for their entertainment. I know I wish I could have.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 3, 2005

A tender love story and a dead-on lampoon of the genre, but its main drawback is that Showalter is egregiously miscast in the title role.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 1, 2005

The more the film stresses and strains to be funny, the unfunnier it gets.

Full Review | Sep 1, 2005

Writer-director Michael Showalter flirts with a great premise, but his slight love story gets cold feet.

Full Review | Sep 1, 2005

Provides a few laughs, but only a few.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2005

Allusions to '40s screwball and later offerings like Annie Hall have a mild resonance as The Baxter struggles to get its footing.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 26, 2005