(PG) ***

Director: Ron Howard.

Cast: Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly, Channing Tatum.

DESPITE its seemingly humourless premise and an off-puttingly flat trailer, The Dilemma is something of a surprise packet, thanks in chief to the presence of Ron Howard.

Directing his first comedy since EDTv in 1999, Howard deftly balances this "dramedy" by hitting the heart and the humerus in equal measure.

That's a tough ask in this film. Vaughn plays Ronny, who catches the wife of his best mate making out with another guy. So far, so not comedic or dramatic.

This brings about the titular quandary - to tell or not to tell. While it seems like a gimme ("Tell him!" I hear you scream), Allan Loeb's sharp script throws up enough complications and smartly rounds out the characters of cheating wife Geneva (Ryder) and Ronny to ensure the tension is sustained without upsetting the juggling act of laughs and life lessons.

The cast are uniformly excellent. Vaughn is his usual self but gets a few sincere moments to show off his long-neglected depths. James is in career-best form (which is admittedly not saying much) and an against-type Ryder is right on the money, particularly in a showdown with Vaughn's character that sets many of the aforementioned complications into play.

The Dilemma is not without its faults though. A scene involving a laboured speech at an anniversary party is, well, laboured, while the opening's "how well do you really know a person?" discussion is too obvious. The film's desire to end on an up-note also feels forced, undoing some of the fine work in the climactic resolution.

But, for the most part, The Dilemma does a great job of actually living up to being a "dramedy". Sure, the laughs don't rival those of Vaughn's funnier films, but an intelligent script and Howard's careful direction ensures this is one problem that is worked out better than you would expect.