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| Ryan Malgarini and Haley Lu Richardson in "The Young Kieslowski." |
An earnest but flawed independent film written and
directed by Kerem Sanga, “The Young Kieslowski” is a slice of life comedy-drama
about a pair of nerdy college students who engage in a cautious one night stand
that turns life-changing when the woman turns up pregnant.
The title character is Brian Kieslowski (Ryan
Malgarini), a bookish physics major with a fear of death and a short, skinny
frame that recalls any number of TV and movie geek archetypes from “Real
Genius” to “The Big Bang Theory.” He’s unlucky in love until he meets the
attractive, equally chaste and available Leslie Mallard (Haley Lu Richardson)
at a party. They hit it off, if only a little too well.
The tone shifts from playful to serious as the
characters begin to consider difficult choices. Confident she’ll opt for an
abortion, Brian promises to support whatever decision Leslie makes; but when
she surprises him by deciding to go through with the pregnancy, he begins to
feel trapped. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, he equivocates and gets himself
into more trouble.
The lack of honesty by the characters leads to a series
of contrived misunderstandings and unwelcome plot twists—at one point, Brain
cheats on Leslie by sleeping with a fellow co-ed on the wrestling team, a
shockingly egregious moment that Sanga actually plays for comedy. Painful secrets
lead to hurt feelings, a tearful breakup, a period of loneliness, and a third
act reconciliation that is as implausible as it is predictable.
In the process, what starts out as a genuinely promising
chronicle of a college couple facing decidedly adult challenges descends into a
muddy quagmire of tedious and stale clichés. Sanga seems to want to combine the
smart teenage romance of “Say Anything” with the thoughtful consideration of
pregnancy in “Juno,” but his “The Young Kieslowski” is finally desperately
inept at the screenplay level and never half as clever as it pretends to be.
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