^ A song surprisingly not featured in this movie. Maybe it would've been too Marie Antoinette.

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Ceremony, the debut of writer/director Max Winkler (Henry's son), wants oh so very badly to be described as Wes Anderson-esque or at least Noah Baumbach-esque. The film centers on a Rushmore-lite love triangle: Zoe (Uma Thurman) is desired by Whit (Lee Pace), an egotistical, but charismatic documentarian, and the rather unpleasant protagonist, Sam Davis (Michael Angarano), a restless 23-year-old who writes quasi-autobiographical, overly violent picture books for children.

The film establishes a certain artificiality in its first scene. In a library, Sam is reading from his latest, a tale of a diver who fights a dastardly merman for the heart of a mermaid. It's an enthusiastic reading, as if he's responding to the wide eyes and gasps of the assembled children (unseen by us). Then he finishes, and the film cuts to a shot of the "audience." An audience of one: Marshall Schmidt (Reece Thompson), Sam's best friend, sitting in the center of a sea of empty chairs. Of course, if this weren't a movie, chances are the reading would have been canceled. It's a slightly amusing gag, I admit, but it is also indicative of Winkler's modus operandi: never let any sense of logic, or, alas, the characters and their arcs and feelings, get in the way of an easy joke or a disposable hipster-ready reference.

It turns out Sam and Marshall have been estranged for a year because the latter has become a recluse after an assault. They reunite as the film begins for what Sam promises will be a relaxing trip to a beachfront hotel. Sam, however, has an ulterior motive: just down the beach is the home of Zoe, an older woman he had a fling with. He's obsessed. She is engaged to Whit, and Sam is desperate to disrupt the ceremony and woo Zoe again. Poor anxious Marshall is just there because he has a car and cash to burn. The trajectory is clear. Will Sam and Marshall, through a series of (un)fortunate events, wind up staying in Zoe's house with the other wedding guests? Will Marshall discover how Sam has used him, threatening their fragile friendship? Did you answer yes to both questions? Maybe you're psychic. Then again, maybe this film is just extremely predictable.

The first 30 minutes of this 90-minute film are by far the worst. Busy, loud, smug. References and nods bombard the viewer. Sam and Marshall discuss an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel! (The film unfolds in an opulent home on Long Island Sound.) There's a character named Esmé! (The first of more than one Salinger reference. Holden Caulfield doesn't come up until later.) Sam, out of the blue, mentions Brief Encounter in a conversation, and we later learn he had a brief encounter with Zoe after she had a row with Whit. So clever, right? Or not. Countless small moments and shots feel lifted directly from the films of Anderson and Baumbach. (Besides Rushmore, Margot at the Wedding is a clear reference point.) The whole enterprises feels ill at ease with itself. It aims for effortless cool, but it's strained. Worst of all, though, is the relationship between young, deceitful Sam and older, one-would-hope-wiser Zoe. There is zero chemistry between Angarano and Thurman. There's no sense this relationship ever meant anything to her and no chance it has a future. This is a romantic comedy more interested in being fashionable and literate than being romantic.

Once the film calms down a bit, and a few of the characters come into slightly fuller view as individuals, it improves. As Marshall, Reece Thompson steals the show. Not only is he playing the most compelling character, but he also gives the most sensitive performance of the ensemble. Give credit to Lee Pace, too, who is hilarious as the self-aggrandizing, very broadly written Whit, whose briefly glimpsed documentaries show him in various heroic poses in Africa. (Similar to the "African Child" music video in Get Him to the Greek. It was funnier there.) Pace lampoons upper-crust, faux-intellectual, post-Bono self-importance very well.

In his first major adult role, Michael Angarano, the young actor from Almost Famous and Sky High, gives a decent performance. There are times where his dialogue plays as soliloquy despite being with other actors, as if he's acting at them rather than with them, but I blame the screenplay for this, not Angarano himself. When truly called upon to deliver, he hits the right dramatic notes, and his screen presence (intense, yet vulnerable) is undeniable. Of the four principals, Uma Thurman is the least impressive. Zoe is simply a very thinly written character. Thurman often seems adrift, beautiful and empty. Winkler's screenplay is so enamored of Sam's angst and self-discovery, it rarely bothers to explore Zoe's feelings or history.

All in all, Ceremony isn't an intolerable film. The music, including retro cuts by Pete Townshend, Ringo Starr, and Eric Burdon & the Animals, is energetic and well-selected. There are a handful of scenes where, beneath the artifice and unoriginality, real grace and poignancy is achieved. They're fleeting, but present nonetheless. And Pace and Thompson's performances are never less than delightful. So there is quality here. Just not enough of it. And as the credits roll, the film, mostly an effort in self-satisfied posturing and without a satisfying or powerful conclusion, quickly begins to seep from the mind. To end with a pop culture reference, which seems appropriate: Winkler is Mr. Brainwash to Wes Anderson's Banksy and Noah Baumbach's Shepard Fairey.

C

I liked it. Thought Reece Thompson was great in it.

B/B-