The House of D is a well intentioned, heartwarming affair and a pretty decent directorial debut by actor David Duchovny, who spent most of his career solving . . . well, I'm sure most of you know who he is so I won't bother. I will say that Duchovny has gone in a new direction since leaving his famous TV show. His debut as a feature director is on par with his wonderful, heartfelt turn in the underrated Return to Me. While not as strong as that picture, it does have the same sort of spirit and warmth even if it does, on occasion, get slightly buried under a shovel-load of manipulative sap. That's okay though, because the film's undeniable charm generally prevails.

House of D features Duchovny as Tom Warshaw, a man reconnecting with his youth, which we are witness to via flashback. Young Tom (played by likable Anton Yelchin) lives in Greenwich Village. There, he spends his days providing laughs for his recently widowed mother (Tea Leoni), causing mischief with a mentally challenged middle aged man (Robin Williams), developing his very first crush, and seeking advice from a female delinquent (winningly played by Erykah Badu) he's never met face to face. He receives this advice while standing on the sidewalk that sits directly in front of the institution (called The House of D) where the outspoken woman has been incarcerated. She basically spouts her words of wisdom to a naive, but knowledge-hungry Tommy from her window nearly four stories up, and for the most part, the young man is eager to take this advice.

House of D means well, but quite often, it over reaches. Still, Duchovny has that rye charm and it translates nicely into his directing style. It also helps that he gets a lot of mileage out of an excellent cast.

Yelchin (Hearts in Atlantis) is very good as a young version of Duchovny. He's got some intense, emotional moments here and always appears to be up to the challenge. He's also got a great sense of humor and builds a nice rapport with Robin Williams. Mr. Williams has the daunting challenge of playing a character who's mentally handicapped, and unfortunately, I found his turn a bit on the inconsistent side. I had similar issues with Sean Penn in I Am Sam. In both cases, these fine actors appear to weave in and out of character, but I do give Williams props for keeping things on the subtle side. The strongest performance in House of D comes courtesy of the beautiful R&B singer Erykah Badu who hits all the right notes as Lady Bernadette, Tommy's incarcerated connection to the streets. She's likable and commanding every step of the way, and is even afforded the opportunity to sing (beautifully) in the picture. The supporting cast is strong, most notably Frank Langella whose absolutely delightful as a man of the cloth and a teacher at Tommy's school.

House of D has mechanical moments to be sure. We get a cute, but labored scene in which a French teacher is tricked by her class into using words she has a hard time pronouncing. Words like happiness (a penis) and focus (I'm not touching that one). We also get a scene in which Williams and Yelchin, pretend to be running down a hallway in slow motion, instantly bringing to mind Williams' early guest spot as Mork on TV's Happy Days. The scene is humorous I suppose, but doesn't make much sense given that Williams' character is supposed to be mentally challenged.

I'm knit-picking of course. House of D is pleasant enough, and I attribute that mostly to Duchovny's ability to create a warm environment for his actors to work in. He also perfectly captures the look and feel of Greenwich Village, both in the past and the present. As an end result, this isn't a flawless movie, but it's a worthy first effort.