How did it feel..?

How did it feel..? marks the directorial debut of actor-turned-playwright Daniel Faraldo, and the film’s entirely inauthentic vibe has been compounded by a stagy sensibility that only highlights the various problems within Faraldo’s utterly incompetent screenplay. The aimlessness with which the filmmaker has infused the proceedings certainly doesn’t help matters, as the movie primarily revolves around the increasingly antagonistic relationship between interracial couple Jesse (Blair Underwood) and Kate (Lucinda Clare). Kate’s success as a self-help author has severely overshadowed the efforts of Jesse to launch a career as a playwright, and the pair’s problems are exacerbated by the arrival of Kate’s flighty (and seemingly insane) sister (Natasha Gregson Wagner’s Maggie). Completely superficial from start to finish, How did it feel..? remains unable to elicit even a fraction of the viewer’s interest throughout its disastrously padded-out running time – with Faraldo’s inability to transform any of the central characters into fully-realized, marginally-compelling figures certainly sounding the film’s death knell. The few admittedly honest moments (eg a prolonged argument between Jesse and Kate regarding his career (or lack thereof)) are undermined by the unreasonably broad performances, as Faraldo has evidently instructed his actors to overplay virtually every single line of dialogue within his interminable screenplay. The end result is a woefully artificial effort that possesses few elements designed to draw the viewer in, and it undoubtedly goes without saying that Faraldo should, from here on in, probably stick to his day job.

1/2* out of ****