What can a romantic comedy about a newly-married couple and an intruder masquerading as a guest do that the genre hasn't done to death already?

Good question... tough decisions... Co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo have a solution. They throw naughty-boy Wilson Owen into newly-married Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson's neat suburban house and watch the unemployed bum create domestic havoc.

In all honesty, some of Owen's have-fun-till-everyone-drops-dead-in-fatigue tactics make humorous viewing. Specially funny is an all-guys' baseball match on TV that ends with two prostitutes with whips showing up at Dillon's doorstep just when his wife is back home.

Perfect timing? Or check out that extremely physical moment of hectic humour when Dillon, entertaining his disapproving father-in-law (Michael Douglas, doing an upper-crust jerk's part with great relish), is suddenly disturbed by a bum chum who sneaks into the compound to salvage a box of porn films that Dillon had recently thrown out in the garbage.

Junk feud? The basic problem with this cloistered comedy isn't its lack of newness. It's the dithering perception of the guest-as-pest theory.

Are we supposed to be indulgent towards Owen Wilson's tactless abuse of the newly married couple? Okay. Done. But why does the couple take the crap -- at times, literally (catch the ugh interlude where Owen defecates in the couple's personal bathroom).

All said and dumb, "You, Me & Dupree" exudes an airy jaunty exterior underlined by a feeling of grave misgivings that jells well as long as you know this is all for fun.

The principal performances sparkle, though Kate Hudson should guard against using stock expressions to convey stock situations.

Matt Dillon is always a delight. We saw him as the brutal racist cop in "Crash". Now watch him play the ambitious newly-married corporate guy sucking up to his boss who happens to be his father-in-law. He's delightfully in-sync with white-collar aspirations.

The film 'belongs' to Owen Wilson. But his character suffers from radical inconsistencies. Guest with powers of jest? Or a pest with powers to cause irreparable damage. Psycho or brat?

That's the question. Unquestionably, we have some disarming moments to pin us down for nearly two hours... like the one where Owen after being thrown out sits forlorn in the pouring rain. The couple take pity on him and drive him back to their home.

That's when the plot drives all reason around the bend.