It's amazing how connected you become to people you spend 40-plus hours a week next to, small-talking with, working alongside and generally commiserating about the work experience five days out of seven. And I don't care how many seminars on being politically correct you take in on what's appropriate etiquette and workplace conversation, behavior and the like - when you're in such close proximity to other people, the boundaries of what's "acceptable" diminish, friendships strengthen, divides widen. Sometimes you're like war buddies by the time you get through a week. Sometimes you're bitter enemies. But you're never indifferent. And when you look back on past jobs or professions, you rarely remember the work. But you always remember the people.

The characters in Tim Story's "Barbershop" function together in a much similar way. A collection of outspoken, funny and confrontational barbers working in a South Side Chicago barbershop, they're a cross-section of American workers that could exist anywhere.

Calvin (a low-key, mature Ice Cube) has inherited a barbershop from his deceased father. Never enthusiastic about the proposition, he has found himself at a personal and professional crossroads. Armed with a pregnant wife and the American Dream in tow, he decides to sell the ailing shop and go into the music producing business where dreams of big money and a comfortable future seem certain. But over the course of one long day in the barbershop, he slowly begins to reconsider his plans, re-examining his life, priorities and future.

The barbershop itself-a mainstay of the community and family legacy-is a neighborhood gathering place, that supersedes the value of a simple haircut. This barbershop has history, family tradition, is a community center and neighborhood hangout. Over the course of one workday in the barbershop, we are witness to one of the liveliest and most entertaining group diatribes we've heard in the movies for quite some time.

"Barbershop" is a rare experience at the movies - it's thoughtful, has rich comic characterizations and is loaded with truly funny moments. It also woos us with the considerable pleasure of listening to its varied characters just talk. And the comedy comes from different directions. Sometimes it's slapstick, and others it's human. But it's also more than just a simple story of a guy in a dilemma with a family business. It is socially observant, albeit in a "polite" way - and keeps slinging potent zingers on everything from the validity of slavery reparations to Rosa Parks' contributions to the Civil Rights movement, to black identity issues and self-acceptance.

The cast is uniformly excellent. Standouts include Cedric "The Entertainer" Kyles in the role of the aging, outspoken Eddie, the movie's loudest and ultimately most loyal character. But it's Ice Cube who delivers a gentle, mannered performance.

I felt good when I walked out of "Barbershop." And I felt like I'd spent two hours with some entertaining people with something to say, engaging in conversation worth hearing. In Hollywood comedy today, that seems like some kind of small miracle.