Suburban wife Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen) could have her pick of suitors after her husband walks out on her and their four daughters.

There's Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker, Captain Morgan and Glen Fiddich. Or maybe Sam Smith or Timothy Taylor.

Spoilt by alcoholic choice, she settles for vodka. And from now on can rarely be spotted without a highball glass welded into her shaking fist.

Through a liquor-induced haze, she watches fearfully as her four daughters come to terms with the elopement of their father with a Swedish secretary.

Personal salvation - of a sort - comes from next-door-neighbour Denny (Costner). A one-time baseball star, he makes a living hosting a laidback phone-in show on a local radio station.

While Terry has a thoroughly consummated relationship with a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, he enjoys a rewarding kinship with a tube of Bud.

Slowly they slur their way into bed and a comfortable understanding with Denny even acting as a surrogate father to Terry's rapidly maturing teenage daughters.

In Allen and Costner, writer/director Mike Binder has landed two season pros to tease out the subtleties of a script blessed with sharp lines as well as moments of poignancy.

Binder himself - a former stand-up comedian - amuses as an oily radio producer who preys on one of Terry's impressionable daughters.

It's just a shame that he couldn't have tightened up the narrative to reduce it from an unwieldly two hour running time and excised a plot twist that beggars belief.

Still, it's always a pleasure to watch Allen, a classy actress serenely unruffled by the challenges of the Lindsay Lohans of this world.

Tim Evans