‘I’ll Do Anything’

James L. Brook’s 1994 film, his first since 1987, is a warm tribute to the acting profession. It’s also a two-couple romantic comedy, a study of an especially prickly father-daughter relationship and a gleeful skewering of aspects of modern Hollywood. It has Brooks’ cockeyed sense of life, the daring and quirky comedy, the great torrents of words that practically explode out of the air. In trying to do so much, Brooks inevitably runs the risk of stumbling. Although it includes many laugh-out-loud moments and fine and lively performances by Julie and Kavner and Albert Brooks (both pictured), the film falls short of holding together. Nick Nolte plays an out-of-work actor whose ex-wife (Tracey Ullman) has compelling reasons why their remarkably bratty 6-year-old should spend an indefinite period of time with her father (Cinemax Friday at 10:15 a.m.).