One week after his funnier, smarter older brother Owen debuted the worst comedy of his career ("You, Me and Dupree"), Luke Wilson stars in "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," without question his best comedic accomplishment.

Luke seems to have stolen his brother's patented, slow-witted charm and down-home careless bliss, and uses those precious and rare qualities to perfection in the film. Given that "Ex-Girlfriend" is far from a great comedy, it still has just enough oddball humor and an alluring sentimentality that make it ultimately satisfactory.

Luke Wilson ("Old School") plays Matt Saunders, a successful architect who falls on the slightly hesitant side when it comes to personal relationships. Urged on by his buddy Vaughn (Rainn Wilson, TV's "The Office"), Matt begins dating a woman he met on the subway, one Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) who, if slightly controlling, is seemingly quiet and sane. But little does he know that underneath Jenny's bushy brown locks and trademark "nerdy superhero alter-ego" glasses is G-Girl, the local superheroine known for busting crooks, putting out fires and just generally being super-heroic.

But my friends, superheroes are people too. They have feelings; they cry, they laugh and sometimes, they get angry and shove a chainsaw up a man's . yeah. In its goofy, light-hearted portrayal of contemporary life, "Ex-Girlfriend" actually does an admirable job of highlighting the impossible logistics of a superhero lifestyle. Sure, Superman and Batman are all wonderful, genial upholders of justice and liberty, but how exactly do they unwind and settle down for a quiet evening with Lois Lane or for that boring board meeting at Wayne Enterprises? We know of their heroics and sometimes learn of their private insecurities but never do real superhero movies get into the ordinary problems our favorite heroes must face.

Sure, there have been films like "Sky High" and "The Incredibles" which attempted to take the superhero movie and add a dash of the mundane, but none of those were any good. "Ex-Girlfriend," while inevitably cheesy and sometimes laughably over the top, is a far better attempt at producing a movie where a superhero is simply a character. So while it's not a superhero movie per se and is mostly a regular romantic comedy, lucky for us, it's a pretty good romantic comedy, accentuated by the outlandish character of its romance.

Luke Wilson, usually at his best as the butt of a better comedian's jokes (see "Blue Streak"), turns out to have a comic quality of his own, and it should surprise no one that it's very similar to his older brother's. Always perfect as the hopeless but likable guy who's in way over his head, he thrives as the clueless punching bag for his over-worked, under-appreciated super-spouse. And in his scenes with Rainn Wilson, there is a touch of that widely desired yet unachievable buddy comedy magic; their relationship almost works, then falls flat, but falls spectacularly and with awkward glances and phrases to spare.

And of course, even super lives have problems; even superheroes can't make someone love them. The unexpected twist the movie concludes with is just as outrageous as the rest of the film and actually a pleasant escape from the "against all odds, romance endures" bombast of most romantic comedies. Like the film itself, the ending is clumsy, cloudy and hardly contingent, but in a way such that it's almost believable and ultimately entertaining.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

My Super Ex-Girlfriend
At the Showcase and Quality 16
20th Century Fox