Stuck in Love (2012)

Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connolly
in "Stuck in Love."

In “Stuck in Love,” Greg Kinnear plays Bill Borgens, a lovesick novelist still miserable over the two years old breakup of his marriage and pining for his ex, Erica (Jennifer Connolly), who left him for one of those vapid, narcissistic personal trainer-types. Deep in writer’s block, Bill pauses occasionally from his depression to either spy on his ex or dole out advice to his college-age kids, daughter Sam (Lilly Collins) and son Rusty (Nat Wolff). When those options aren’t available, he has sex with a promiscuous, married neighbor (Kristen Bell), who conveniently passes by his beachside property while jogging.

Following in the footsteps of dad, both kids have become aspiring writers, but the dissolution of family has spawned collateral damage, particularly in the case of Sam, who has witnessed her dad’s suffering too long and now feels cold and hateful towards her mother. Nevertheless, the friction hasn’t hindered her writing; Sam shares news of the publishing of her first book soon after the movie opens.

Rusty, on the other hand, is having a little trouble getting started with his manuscript until his dad convinces him something along the lines of writing being the sum of one’s experiences. Subsequently, the previously uncorrupted Rusty starts attending more campus parties and falls hard for a pretty classmate (Liana Liberato) with a bright smile but dark habit of ducking into strange bathrooms to snort cocaine. Meanwhile, Bill keeps hoping for signs that Erica still has feelings for him, and—surprise!—it turns out there’s a big secret being kept from Sam that might just settle this silly mother-daughter rift.

“Stuck in Love” is the watchable but middling and hopelessly predictable debut from writer-director Josh Boone, whose second film (unseen by me) is “The Fault in Our Stars” (2014) about a cancer-stricken teen. Both movies have ample opportunities for melodrama and “Stuck in Love” takes advantage, assigning all of the characters at least one life crisis to be neatly resolved by the end. The movie is like the pilot for one of those mawkish series you see on family T.V. stations. Even the pretentious dialogue by the would-be writers feels condescending and stilted, as if plucked from an episode of “Gilmore Girls.”

Of course, the divorced couple reuniting in “Stuck in Love” is one of the happy resolutions, wrapped so tidy that you wonder why they ever really split up in the first place. Do the trappings of the plot count?