Cooper (Matthew Broderick) is a newspaper editor having memory problems after suffering a concussion. He is forced to go on leave, and he goes back home. His mother wants to put his uncle Rollie (Alan Alda) into assisted living. Irratic Rollie is having mental problems of his own, but he has a rare baseball card. Hoping to stay independent, Rollie goes to memorabilia convention to sell his card with the help of Cooper, Cooper's ex Charlotte (Virginia Madsen) and her son.

I didn't much like either Broderick or Alda's character. They aren't very funny. Uncle Rollie is very angry. They're trying for quirky and funny. I wonder if quirky and dark would make more sense. This never got funny. And the ridiculous slapstick in the end of them fighting for the card is downright stupid. When the card is so valuable and Rollie is treating it like a pawn shop reject, it's just too frustrating and too painful to watch.

Cooper, a newspaper political writer, suffered a concussion on his head. He is suffering from a loss of memory. The paper has moved him to a job proofreading the comic strips it carries, but even at that, his mind is not what it once was. When Cooper's mother Belle calls asking to help her with an uncle that appears to be getting incapable of living alone, he decides to go see what is really going on.

What Cooper finds is his uncle Rollie, who is definitely not all there. Yet, the old man has moments of lucidity. Rollie, an independent minded soul is aging with all the problems the declining process carries. Rollie is sort of a dreamer; he has several passions, like fishing, writing poetry, but ideas become jumbled in his head. Cooper gets to know that someone is trying to steal a valuable baseball card, in pristine condition, that was given to Rollie by his own grandfather. Belle thinks that selling the card will bring some badly needed cash that Rollie does not have.

In going back to the small place where he was born, Cooper reacquaints himself with his former girlfriend, Charlotte, now a divorced lady with a young son. Charlotte, a painter, must go to Chicago for a presentation of her painting to a restaurant chain. Cooper thinks he can interest Rollie in selling his valuable card at a baseball convention. Unfortunately, Rollie is about to be swindled into accepting not even a small fraction of the value.

Terry Kinney, better known as an actor and director with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater, is at the helm of this pleasant, if light comedy. Based on a book by Sherwood Kiraly, the film has a thin plot, but it is engaging while one is watching it. The folks we meet are people one could relate to. The indignities of growing old and having to depend on others weighs heavily in the story. It also deals with loss of memory, as seems to be a metaphor for those things one tends to forget with the passing of time.

Matthew Broderick plays Cooper with his usual boyish charm. The wonderful Virginia Madsen adds a touch of class with her Charlotte. The great Alan Alda makes a case for his Rollie, a man who sees everything suddenly out of his control. Bobby Cannavale and Dylan Baker, two excellent character actors are seen as a bad and a good guy in the baseball card business. Legendary Ernie Banks has a cameo role.

"Diminished Capacity" will resonate with viewers looking for an enjoyable and peaceful time with the company of regular people, something that sometimes is forgotten by Hollywood.

Maybe Diminished Capacity isn't "all that and a bag of chips," as a friend of mine is fond of saying. But I'll tell you what, it's pretty funny. I think I heard more laughing than anything I've seen at Sundance since Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine. That bodes well for the box office prospects of this film.

Alan Alda gives a terrific performance as Rollie Zerb, a small-town Missouri old-timer with Alzheimer's, who lives with his sister (and some hilarious but unidentified guy named Wendell in a trailer by the house). They are visited by Cooper (Matthew Broderick),who arrives at his mother's request to help talk Uncle Rollie into a nursing home. Cooper has mental problems of his own, due to a recent concussion. While back in town, he runs into Charlotte (Virginia Madsen),his high school sweetheart who is recently divorced from the town mayor. And somehow Rollie, Cooper, Charlotte and her son wind up heading to Chicago, where they are going to try to sell Uncle Rollie's rare baseball card of Frank Schulte, from the 1908 Chicago Cubs (the last Cubbies team to win the World Series!).

Broderick is solid, in his awkward, understated way. Madsen is the straight woman. But Alan Alda makes the movie as Uncle Rollie, and dominates the screen in almost every scene. And yes, if you squint you'll see shades of Hawkeye Pierce, but his Rollie character is a complete departure from anything he has done in the past, and probably his best comedic performance since MASH.

The script is very well-written, if a bit awkward at parts, and under the direction of veteran actor Terry Kinney, the action moves along briskly. There is probably more tension than there needs to be, which doesn't really fit. But when you're not wincing, you're generally laughing. There are some hilarious lines, and a plenty of feel-good vibe. Everyone will like this movie.

Sundance Moment: Broderick was much better on stage than I would have expected. He was there with his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, whose movie Smart People had premiered at Sundance the night before. Alan Alda was charming as well. Bobby Canavale was in two movies playing at Sundance this year, the other being The Merry Gentleman.