Wish I Was Here

A struggling actor (Zach Braff) tries home-schooling his kids when his ailing father (Mandy Patinkin) can no longer pay for their private school. Director, star and co-writer (with his brother Adam J. Braff) Braff's movie is a labor of love on all levels, sweetly disarming in its desire to please and uplift. The script is more than a little scattershot and unfocused, but that's not a bug, it's a feature: The hero's life is similarly unfocused, and undertaking a free-form education for his son (Pierce Gagnon) and daughter (Joey King) helps bring clarity to his own life, and to his relationship with his dad, his emotionally stunted brother (Josh Gad) and his supportive wife (Kate Hudson). The movie piles episode on episode like a game of Tetris, each one interlocking with the others in a quirky and satisfying way.