Luke Wilson is a puzzling Hollywood case study. Every significant box
office success of his career appears to have been more or less
incidental to his involvement (witness Blue Streak, the Legally Blonde films and Old School), and every movie in which he’s been touted as a topliner has drastically underperformed if not flopped (witness Alex and Emma, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Vacancy and You Kill Me).
Despite all this, Wilson continues to find work, with one film in the can (Blonde Ambition) and another on the way next summer (Henry Poole is Here). Not bad for a guy who, when he co-starred in a romantic comedy with Drew Barrymore, barely hit the $10 million box office mark.

In short, this guy has absolutely zero pull with an audience, and no lasting commercial footprint of consequence.
Like fellow officers of Blandsville Edward Burns and Jim Caviezel,
Wilson has found consistent work because he seems to have a certain
likeability. (Actually, strike Caviezel from that group; he obviously
has a Passion voucher from Jesus helping procure him steady
gigs.) Wilson just kind of looks the part and frequently, in
mid-level-budgeted pictures, that’s good enough. So if ever there were
a more shrug-worthy modern hop behind the camera than The Wendell Baker Story,
new this week to DVD, it’s hard to recall. It’s not that the words
“multi-hyphenate” attached to Luke Wilson’s name conjure up irrational
irritation or aversion; rather, it’s that they elicit no feelings at
all.

The Wendell Baker Story fancies itself a shaggy beguiler, able
to coast by on latent charms only partially or occasionally manifested.
Its tonal incongruities and barely concealed self-satisfaction, though,
render it a deluded mess. It’s not that it’s always lazy, per se, it’s
just that it seems to have an ambling tone born of too many false
compliments. That the story is somewhat arbitrary is forgivable, but as
an actor Luke Wilson doesn’t even craft an inviting lead. For a film
with a possessive title, that’s a problem indeed. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.