Berlin

Happy Tears

(U.S.)

Ditsy younger sister Jayne (Parker Posey), and her more pragmatic older sibling Laura (Demi Moore), an environmental scientist, both live in California’s Bay Area now, although they grew up in Pittsburgh, where their widowed father Joe (Rip Torn) still resides. As pic opens, Laura is introduced as she cajoles Jayne over the phone to come back East to help with the increasingly troublesome Joe, a trip Jayne, who’s prone to daydreams and self-delusion, is clearly putting off.

Jayne, however, doesn’t have much else to do but shop, and her rich, depressed husband Jackson (Christian Camargo) is always busy dealing with the legacy of his late father, a famous artist. (The latter point reps an obvious autobiographical touch, given helmer Mitchell Lichtenstein is the son of renowned pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.) So off to Pittsburgh she goes, where within minutes of arriving she’s forced to help Laura clean Joe up after he’s crapped his pants, an impressively unflinching, deeply realistic scene that might repulse some auds, but will strike a shuddering chord of recognition for others who have had to care for sick loved ones.

Also living at the family home is Joe’s floozy g.f. Shelly (Ellen Barkin, looking fabulously skanky), who claims she’s a nurse and wears a stethoscope to prove it. Her filthy hands and trashy wardrobe suggest she’s working in much rougher profession on the streets.

From here on out, bulk of pic reps a meandering study of these characters and this awkward situation as the two sisters debate whether Shelly is a benign or malevolent figure (turns out she’s a bit of both), and whether they should in the long run have Joe put in a nursing home or care for him themselves, among other conundrums. Grief over the recent death of their mother (played by Susan Blommaert in flashback) and long-simmering resentments further cloud the issues.

Script by Lichtenstein is slyly subtle about how it gradually introduces secondary characters who turn out to have bigger roles than expected, while those who look set to have important parts (like Jackson) are summarily dropped. Despite story’s largely sad thrust, pic’s various plot strands tie up by the end in a surprisingly upbeat, tidy fashion. In other words, “Happy Tears” is less of a mess than it looks like, despite its quirk-infested, baggy midsection.

It’s clear throughout, however, that Lichtenstein is better at writing than he is at directing. Pic has good ingredients but they never quite emulsify, a result that’s as much from slipshod editing as it is of Lichtenstein’s shaky control over the perfs. Posey, who’s sometimes a brilliant thesp and sometimes a very irritating and mannered one, is allowed to overindulge her propensity for tics and twitches here. Moreover, her register doesn’t match up with Moore, who underplays too much even if she’s credible as a level-headed, no-nonsense gal (albeit one too glamorous-looking for how the character’s written) Torn, at least, delivers the required goods with loveable, increasingly addled scumbag rogue, which might have yet another variant on the crazy grandpa role Alan Arkin played in “Little Miss Sunshine” and Philip Bosco in “The Savages,” but which Torn make his own.

On the back of this and “Teeth,” it’s obvious Lichtenstein has a jones for strong, oddball women protagonists, an inclination that ought to be encouraged in a climate where too many femme-centric pics are patronisingly banal, or little more than vehicles for extensive product placement. More development, or a tougher producer or script editor, might have ironed out the kinks in “Happy Tears,” but equally they might have made it less interesting.

Tech credits are largely pro, although there’s too much of Robert Miller undistinguished score, which seems out of kilter with the spirit of the movie.

Camera (color), Jamie Anderson; editor, Joe Landauer; music, Robert Miller; production designer, Paul Avery; art director, Scott Anderson; set decorator, Tora Peterson; costume designer, Stacey Battat; sound (Dolby Digital), Jan McLaughlin; supervising sound editor, Eric Milano; visual effects supervisor, Mark O. Forker; stunt coordinator, Peter Bucossi; assistant director, Michael A. Moffa; casting, Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee, associate producer, Richard Lormand. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (competing), Feb. 11, 2009. Running time: 95 MIN