In blockbusters from Bad Boys to Independence Day, the Men in Black movies, and I Robot, Will Smith has made a handsome living as a big-budget action hero. But the erstwhile Fresh Prince truly plays to his strong hand in this ingeniously plotted romantic comedy. Smith portrays Alex Hitchens, the self-proclaimed “date doctor” who, for a fee, advises socially awkward single men in affairs of the heart. One of his greatest challenges will be coaching klutzy accountant Albert (Kevin James of TV's King of Queens), who has a major crush on his firm’s biggest client, globe-trotting heiress Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta). Complicating matters is Hitch’s burgeoning relationship with Sara (Eva Mendes), a tabloid reporter who’s sworn to expose the anonymous date doctor as a fraud -- without realizing that her new boyfriend is the guy she’s looking for. Director Andy Tennant (Ever After) very wisely gives his principal players lots of leeway, which pays off in some genuinely hysterical moments -- many of them contributed by James, who comes perilously close to stealing the picture away from its top-billed star. His shy, overweight accountant is a tremendously endearing character, and even if it seems unlikely that he’ll ever get to first base with leggy, luscious Valletta, we can’t help rooting for him. The Smith-Mendes matchup, oddly enough, doesn’t seem quite as interesting; this could be a flaw of the script, which makes Hitch a personable but aloof character whose machinations aren’t always on the up-and-up. Fortunately, the whole amounts to more than the sum of its parts, and by the time the predictable happy ending has been reached, there won’t be many viewers who haven’t been grandly entertained.