"[3] It was concluded, "regrettably, it’s impossible for the film or its star to do little more than recall other recent comedies and performers: the superior School of Rock for one and, via the portly Sollis’s eerily similar voice, Jonah Hill.
[2] In a project where a "depressed comedian becomes an unlikely kindergarten teacher", it was felt that despite its potential, "the film never manages to find a consistent footing, shifting uneasily in tone and haltingly proceeding with its formulaic plotting.
"[2] The New York Times wrote that writer/director David Wexler was to be commended for taking viewers where might be expected in an "oaf-in-kiddieland story", but also offered it was "too bad that he didn’t bring a little more creativity to the predictable tale he does fashion".
[1] Granting that the film had Kindergarten Cop and School of Rock moments" and Jonathan Sollis having a physique similar to Jack Black, rather than being a comedy, "the focus soon shifts to finding Zoe a rebound romance.
[5] It was felt that while the premise of a stand-up comic dealing with the death of a girlfriend by taking a job as a kindergarten teacher "sounds like something from a wacky Jonah Hill comedy," the film managed to execute it "with restraint and complexity in a surprising way".