Between producing “The Social Network’’ and serving as artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theater, Kevin Spacey found the time to lend his charismatic presence to this little comedy, which is worth a look on DVD when it arrives there just two weeks after its token theatrical bow today.
Director Trent Cooper’s highly predictable script provides Spacey with plenty of room to show his snarky stuff as a formerly wildly successful huckster who is trying for a comeback — and to patch things up with his estranged daughter (Camilla Belle) — after finishing a prison stretch for selling a lethally defective exercise device.
Among familiar faces turning up are Virginia Madsen as Spacey’s remarried ex-wife, Heather Graham as Belle’s man-hating lesbian roommate and Johnny Knoxville as Spacey’s boss at an imitation Walmart.
But make no mistake, “Father of Invention’’ is the hilarious Spacey’s show all the way.