We meet five men, each with female trouble. Cedric (Kevin Hart) can't wait for his divorce to be final. Dominic (Michael Ealy) can't find someone who supports his often passionate pipe dreams. Zeke (Romany Malco) just wants the physical -- read: sex -- while Michael (Terrence J) is a weak-kneed momma's boy. And then there is Jeremy (Jerry Ferrara) who's locked in a state of perpetual arrested adolescence. When the latter's long-suffering girlfriend Kristen (Gabrielle Union) stumbles across Harvey's book, she sees a way to make her fun-loving frat boy grow up. Suddenly, all the ladies in these men's lives -- the high powered COO Lauren (Taraji P. Henson), the single mother Candace (Regina Hall), and the reluctant beauty Mya (Meagan Good) -- are using the advice within its pages. When the guys find out what's happening, they decide to fight fire with fire.

Think Like a Man is not some minor masterpiece. It's not a work of art that stands with the best the genre has to offer. Instead, it's a casual, comfortable romp which borrows heavily from both sides of the cultural divide. As with many movies geared toward the urban demographic, there is a tweaked Tyler Perry approach to the material, a clever combination of merriment and melodrama that's more hit than miss. We buy into the characters, are willing to watch as they fumble through their situations, and feel a bit misty when it looks like life will reward them accordingly. But Story and his scribes also understand the draw outside ethnicity, and that's where Hart comes in. A seasoned stand-up, he's a one man riffing machine, lacing every scene he's in with a kind of off the wall wackiness that turns even tired punchlines powerful.

But it's the gals who really shine here, each one arguing for a complexity Think Like a Man may not have anticipated. While the narrative is geared toward the guys (they have the major arcs), Union, Henson, Hall, and Good generate the necessary empathy. We can understand their frustrations, their individual failings and false hopes. By the time their men figure out that Harvey's book is to blame, we're invested. That makes the last act all the more potent. Even when we can see the plot machinations churning away, we wonder if happiness will find these deserving divas.

Alas, there are problematic points here and there. Terrence J's attachment to his mother is routine and ridiculous while an intriguing subplot involving Malco's previous career as a wannabe R&B singer is pushed aside unceremoniously. Still, for the sudden arrival of some unexpected sports cameos alone, the movie earns back a bit of its magic. In the complicated world of man/woman relationships, Harvey argues that he has all the answers. Luckily, the movie made from his ideas seems to confirm his comic point of view.