This is the directorial debut of screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin - he won an Oscar for his screenplay for Ghost - and a passable effort it is, too. Michael Keaton is very effective as the hotshot public relations executive given only months to live, and Nicole Kidman is nicely sparky as his newly pregnant wife. Rubin manages to keep sentiment at bay until the final reel, when he jettisons all semblance of reality and goes for the moist-eyed angels strumming on fluffy clouds scenario. The film is at its most endearing and revealing, however, when Keaton, talking to camera, videotapes messages to leave to his unborn child.

It seems that Bob Jones has everything a man could want, namely a fulfilling job and a beautiful, pregnant wife, Gail. But Bob's life is turned upside-down when he is diagnosed with cancer and given four months to live -- not even enough time to see his first child's birth. To cleanse himself of demons in his remaining days, Bob makes a video diary, hoping to pass along some wisdom to his future child. Along the way, he discovers a lot about himself.