This Kickstarter-funded bittersweet tale of love and death from Zach Braff doesn’t have anything like the cult appeal of his directorial debut, Garden State. What it does have is a superfluity of competing themes, as eternally out-of-work actor Aidan (Braff) squares up to his dad’s cancer, his children’s home-schooling, his marital inertia, his brotherly struggles with responsibility, and more. Inevitably the film offers mixed rewards as it rambles from quirkiness to quasi-profundity via life-lesson-learning comedy, sharp-talking Jewish wit, and soft-hearted family hugs.

It sounds awful, but it’s actually quite likable in an indulgent indie-spirited way, skipping breezily through laughter and tears in largely inoffensive fashion. Mandy Patinkin lends weight as Aidan’s irascible dad, and Josh Gad (who got all the best lines as the snowman in Frozen) has fun as a cos-playing Comic-Con ubergeek, on the prowl for mateable aliens.