At the beginning of the story we meet the perfect father, Frank (John Travolta). He is carrying on the family tradition of being a boat maker extraordinaire, living in Southport, Maryland. His ex-wife (Teri Polo) is getting married to Rick (Vince Vaughn). Frank’s son Danny (Matt O’Leary) doesn’t like his new father and keeps getting into trouble to attract attention and to try to get his biological parents back together.
At the wedding, we meet Ray Coleman (Steve Buscemi) and discover that Rick and him share a shady past. Danny discovers that his new father has two very distinct sides to his personality, and tries his best to make everyone else aware of this. However, he has cried wolf so many times in the past, no one believes him now except for Frank. This becomes very frustrating to Danny and to us, the audience, as well.
This story has a lot of holes in it and is very predictable, however the acting really saved this film from being an absolute nightmare.