Review: Alice Englert's Bad Behaviour is a disappointing debut

Alice Englert makes her writing and directing debut and also plays one of the lead roles. It might have helped if someone else had collaborated on the underwritten screenplay.

Whatever the ideas were in Englert's head, not enough of them were translated effectively to the screen.

What makes it particularly disappointing is there's a lot of talent involved.

It's billed as a dark comedy, but don't expect much in the way of laughs.

Lucy (Jennifer Connelly) had TV success in her teens in a Xena: Warrior Princess-type show. Now an adult, she goes to a retreat in Oregon run by Elon Bello (Ben Wishaw). It's one of those find-yourself places where the suckers - uh, seekers - sometimes practice silence, sometimes share shames and secrets with the group, and sometimes play games, like one person pretending to be a baby, the other a mother.

How this helps anyone - except perhaps the giggly Elon who professes to be enlightened but shows little evidence of it - is a bit of a mystery. Lucy doesn't always seem convinced, but goes along with it.

In New Zealand (where the movie was filmed - there seem to be a lot of Kiwis in "Oregon") is Lucy's daughter Dylan (Englert), who's working on a movie as a stuntwoman.

They converse occasionally by phone and it seems their relationship is a little strained.

Both of the major locations - a movie set and a retreat - have lots of dramatic and comedic potential but unfortunately the movie gets too caught up in little things that don't mean a lot.

It's certainly possible to make good films set in limited locations and films about people who are afflicted by such problems as ennui and lack of fulfilment but unfortunately here the attempts are unsuccessful.

The people and their issues aren't terribly affecting and everything seems lightly sketched rather than given any detail or depth. And it's so slow.

There are one or two poignant and dramatic moments in the retreat but not enough to allay the suspicion that it's not only the characters who have wasted their resources.

Even less happens on the movie location.

By the time the real themes - of intergenerational issues and how they affect people - emerge fully, there's not a lot of time to spend on them and since there wasn't much groundwork laid earlier, they don't resonate as they should.

The scenery looks lovely, as you'd expect, and the actors are good despite their thinly written roles.

But unless you're a fan of the stars or very patient and prepared to be satisfied with what might have been, this isn't anything like a must-see, sadly.