Terrific actors brighten beige family comedy 'The Hollars'

The beige family comedy "The Hollars" proves one thing for sure: Terrific actors can indeed elevate mundane material to something brighter, more meaningful and interesting.

Case in point: Margo Martindale and Richard Jenkins play longtime spouses, and their comfortable, kinetic chemistry gives booster rockets to John Krasinski's impulse-powered second directorial effort.

The Hollars are human magnets when it comes to attracting mildly amusing - yet never surprising - sitcom complications and tepidly warmhearted outcomes.

Would-be New York cartoonist John Hollar (Krasinski) nervously approaches fatherhood with his pregnant girlfriend Becca (Anna Kendrick), whom he won't marry because that would end his illusionary adolescence.

When mom Sally (Martindale) develops a brain tumor, John returns to his generic, Rockwellian hometown, where his mother's pushy nurse Jason (Charlie Day) is now married to his hottie high school heartthrob Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

John's messed-up brother Ron (Sharlto Copley) obsesses over his ex-wife (Ashley Dyke), now married to sweet Reverend Dan (Josh Groban).

Meanwhile, Don the dad (Jenkins) resembles an emo water sprinkler after his business tanks. Plus, he feels bad he sent Sally to Jenny Craig instead of the hospital when she complained of blindness and temporary paralysis.

Krasinski, still a better actor than director, goes for warm fuzzies rather than chords on the heart strings.

His movie packs its not-so-secret weapon - the duo of longtime vets Martindale and Jenkins, emotionally synced on levels that instantly tap into an inconvenient truth: Sally and Don have been married perhaps a little too long.