How others will see it. A large number of viewers will be offended by the film's acceptance of multiple partner homosexuality and bisexuality, illicit drug use, and children raised outside of marriage. A select group of people, the target audience, will embrace the film's liberal viewpoint and likeable characters.
How I felt about it. I believe that the film is lame. There are a few interesting and rewarding scenes, but many plot events don't add up, and the characters are too softened in an effort to make them acceptable to the audience.
My favorite scene features Sissy Spacek. She has just learned that her teenage son's best friend (Ferrell), adopted by the family, is having a homosexual relationship with the son (Roberts). Does she get angry? Not in this film. Instead, she convinces Farrell to stay and even gives tacit support to the relationship. She does this through an act of intimacy, teaching Farrell how to make a pie. Methinks that the mother has a crush on Farrell, and this provides her true motivation.
It seems that cutie pie, free love advocate, and perpetual nice guy Farrell can make anyone fall for him. His next unwitting conquest is Penn, an allegedly eccentric but extremely nice woman who is sort of trying to have a baby with the now fully grown and openly homosexual Roberts. Penn's worries that Farrell is too gay to take a sexual interest in her, and she is relieved when she learns his reluctance is due to inexperience with women.
The most preposterous scene, for me, is the success of Farrell's and Roberts' cafe. In one scene, they are casing a derelict restaurant for sale. The very next scene, the cafe is not only open but a roaring success, apparently with Farrell and Roberts as the sole employees. If life were only that easy.