OxfordPress.com

"Breakin' All the Rules" is a funny movie. Ha-ha funny sometimes, but more frequently amusing in a good-natured, make-you-smile way.

In the quickly twisted plot, comedian Jamie Foxx plays Quincy, a cog at upscale Spoils magazine in Los Angeles. When his model girlfriend, Helen (Bianca Lawson), abruptly dumps him and his loopy boss, Philip (Peter MacNicol), hastily drafts him to downsize the company, Quincy quits his job and retires from life.

Holed up in his fancy Hollywood bungalow, he somehow merges the textbooks he's been studying on employee termination and the heartbroken, "why me?" letters he's been writing to Helen into a book about the best way to end a relationship.

"The Breakup Handbook" is published by Spoils and becomes a No. 1 best seller, sending suddenly famous Quincy on a book tour and setting in motion the contrivances of a classic screwball comedy. What's different, of course, is that black actors inhabit the roles once reserved for the likes of Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe. Needless to say, because this ain't a Spike Lee joint, the most interesting implications of class and race never surface, but are left to bubble under the silliness.

The plot accelerates into a full-blown bedroom farce when Philip, really just MacNicol reprising his Ally McBeal, Porky Pig persona, enlists Quincy to help him get rid of his gold-digging girlfriend, Rita (Jennifer Esposito).

And then Quincy's cousin, Evan (Morris Chestnut), uses him to break up with his girlfriend, Nicky (Gabrielle Union). All sorts of misunderstandings and partner-switching confusion result. And, oh yeah, there's a recurring slapstick set piece with a drunken, peeing pug dog. But in the end, love trumps cynicism, or at least cynicism finds its perfect match.

"Breakin' All the Rules" is a been-there-done-that kind of movie. It uses a sweeps week's worth of sitcom clichés, and the ending is like déjá vu all over again, coming straight out of the finale of last week's "Friends." But what saves it from being pure product -- and for moments makes it decent entertainment -- is Foxx and his friends.

The whole cast shows great comic timing, while Foxx and MacNicol steal the show with their giddy, rubber-faced goofing. And the quick-cut editing and percolating, urban-friendly soundtrack (including a concert cameo by Heather Headley) keep things moving along until the final credits -- when the whole thing dissolves like cotton candy.