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Freshman director Kirt Gunn comes up with some intriguing visuals (I love the shot of a writer at her keyboard as images from her story can be seen on the corner of the screen), but storytelling is more cutesy than charming. While Gunn does find odd ways to link the three interlocking stories, none of the stories themselves are clever or involving enough to be interesting in themselves, and they add up to an unsatisfying whole.

The primary tale involves a frustrated novelist named Marian (Carrie Preston), who can’t figure out what to do with her protagonists. Her former writing instructor Jackson (Austin Pendelton, “A Beautiful Mind”) suggests that she should put them in some kind of danger in order to give the tale some much needed tension.

Apparently, Jackson’s relationships with his pupils have been less than platonic. This might explain why he’s still listening to Marian.

The tale itself features a pair of brothers named Mopekey (Dallas Roberts) and Humpkin (Michael Chernus). What loving parent wouldn’t want to give names like those to their offspring?

The two spend all their days living on a houseboat that’s stuck in the middle of an empty field. Neither sibling wears more than briefs, and both seem to subsist on cereal (which they pretend to catch like fish) and milk that’s delivered right to their stern.

While Marian, like Gunn, struggles in vain to figure out something fascinating to do with the brothers, a car salesman named Bob (Reg Rogers) can’t get a single vehicle to leave the lot because he’s depressed about the death of his wife and because his daughter (Lena Lamer) won’t talk to him, or anybody else. He also actively tries to dissuade potential customers by getting them to doubt their need of the car.

Despite their seemingly disconnected nature, the tales do combine, but at times the intersections seems more like wrecks than acts of synergy. There is a reason that Mopekey and Humpkin seem like overgrown children, but when the explanation arises, it feels more like a cop-out than a revelation.

While “Lovely by Surprise” blurs the line between fantasy and reality, neither are that engaging in this film. As Mopekey and Humpkin go about their onboard lives, it’s easy to wish that Marian had not only taken out both characters but maybe even adopted Bob’s line of work.

Even in the realm of make-believe, none of these characters is terribly convincing, so it’s hard to get concerned about their struggles. It also doesn’t help that the willfully mute child is a hackneyed device (even “Terminator: Salvation” uses it). It would be easier to tolerate thin characters if there were some genuine wit involved, but it’s simply not funny to watch grown men munching on cereal as they try to catch pretend fish.

The cast is solid, but whimsical banality is still banality.

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originally posted: 07/08/09 00:40:16
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