Jason Alexander apparently is trying to channel Neil Simon in Just Looking.

The second directorial effort from the former Seinfeld star is like a reheated version of Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. Only this version plays with the forced chirpiness of a sitcom.

Alexander's vision of the Bronx in the summer of 1955 is idyllic. First-time screenwriter Marshall Karp, a former advertising executive and TV writer, says the story is semiautobiographical. In his childhood memories, Bronx streets bustled nonstop with girls skipping rope, old men gabbing on stoops and women buying produce from sidewalk stands.

He tells the coming-of-age story of a 14-year-old Jewish boy named Lenny (Ryan Merriman), who is obsessed with sex. Lenny's father has died and he works at a butcher shop owned by his new stepfather (Richard V. Licata), whom he doesn't trust.

His mother (Patti LuPone) thinks it will be good for him to spend the summer in Queens with his pregnant Aunt Norma (Ilana Levine) and her Italian husband, Phil (Peter Onorati).

Lenny doesn't want to go. But once there, he quickly becomes friends with John (Joseph Franquinha), the next-door neighbour who's also curious about sex.

John invites Lenny to join the "sex club" he's in with two girls from school. They don't actually do anything. They just talk about it, which provides ample opportunity for forced wackiness.

John and Lenny both have a crush on Hedy (Gretchen Mol), a beautiful nurse in the neighbourhood who used to be a bra model. They hatch a scheme to spy on Hedy having sex with her doctor boyfriend. Madcap hilarity ensues!

All these prepubescent high jinks feel contrived, and the characters two-dimensional. By talking and thinking about sex all the time, Lenny is just plain boring. So when the film takes a serious turn toward the end, and Lenny learns the hard way that adults can be ugly sometimes, it's hard to care.

Alexander's sitcom experience is evident here. His pacing is too quick, his young actors ape for the camera, and he shoots them standing side by side, turning their heads to speak to each other. Even the dilemmas are out of a sitcom. Aunt Norma goes into labour during a thunderstorm, and Lenny, the only one home with her, has to figure out how to get her to the hospital.

Uncle Phil is an Italian stereotype, who cheers for Italian baseball players and walks around the house singing songs from Italian operas.

And what a waste of Patti LuPone! The woman won a Tony Award for Evita. What is she doing here? Actually, she's barely in the movie, but she gets top billing.

(This film is rated AA)

More Movie Reviews