Throwing Stars 2 1/2 stars
Jason London, Scott Grimes, Scott Michael Campbell, David DeLuise
Directed by Todd Breau
Shows again June 12 at 6:30 p.m.
Adolescence keeps getting extended in the movies, to the point at which, at least for males, it’s now lasting just past 30. (Actually, if you count The 40-Year-Old Virgin, it’s managed to hold on well into middle age.) Arrested development is at the core of Throwing Stars, a middling dark comedy about four childhood buddies who are struggling to deal with their adult lives. Oh, and they’re also busy trying to dispose of a dead body.
Yes, it’s one of those movies that uses an outrageous and contrived set-up to get its characters together so they can hash out their feelings and learn something about themselves. The group’s anxieties range from the pedestrian (an overbearing pregnant wife; insecurities about sexual inadequacy) to the extreme (inability to move on from the death of a wife; accidentally killing a guy), but they’re all handled with roughly the same level of seriousness, which is to say very little. Director Breau and screenwriter Ryan Steckloff treat their characters’ problems rather cavalierly, hastily sketching them out and using the far-fetched body-dumping expedition (not to mention a melodramatic third-act medical emergency) as a replacement for character growth and emotional connection.
The actors playing the four friends (London, Grimes, Campbell and DeLuise) are all likeable enough, but Steckloff doesn’t give them much to work with, and Breau seems to leave them adrift, shifting awkwardly back and forth from stupid comedy (there is a monkey that figures prominently into the storyline) to sappy drama. So much time is taken up with the inane plot (which still leaves tons of loose ends) that there is barely enough time for each character to have one or two emotional moments before declaring his problems solved.
Breau also shoots the whole thing in a flat, workmanlike style that underplays the zany comedy while shortchanging the dramatic moments. This is a film that seems too timid to be either outrageously dark or sincerely heartfelt, and the result is a dissatisfying middle ground that does service neither to its characters nor its audience.