A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ENDINGS (Jonathan Sobol). 96 minutes. See times. Rating: NN
Citizen Duane screenwriter Jonathan Sobol makes an ungainly directorial debut with this comedy about three adult brothers (Jason Jones, Scott Caan and Paulo Costanzo) who learn they’re going to die much sooner than they’d planned, thanks to an experimental drug trial their no-account dad (Harvey Keitel) signed them up for years earlier.
This leads to a lot of frenzied running around, but not a lot of laughs. Sobol devotes all his attention to juggling the various plots, leaving the actors struggling to land the jokes in their dialogue.
Jones fares best, barking out insults like a seasoned pro, while Caan grapples with a lumpy romantic subplot involving an old flame (Tricia Helfer), and Costanzo does the bucket list thing as clumsily as possible. Keitel is wasted, and J.K. Simmons, perfectly cast as his brother, has little to do except look on scornfully.
