Michael Douglas plays a burnt-out literary professor whose second novel has stalled after seven years. Among his students is weird genius Tobey Maguire, who gets involved in a weekend of bizarre events that begin when Douglas is attacked by the dog belonging to the head of English, with whose wife (Frances McDormand) he's having an affair. So begins a richly entertaining, deliciously offbeat story with a relishable dark sense of humour. Looking impressively shabby and ancient, Douglas gives one of his finest performances, and Maguire's not far behind. Unusually, it was filmed in sequence.