The Clapper

Directed by Dito Montiel, The Clapper follows a professional audience member (Ed Helms’ Eddie Krumble) as his livelihood is threatened by a burst of unexpected (and unwanted) fame. It’s an agreeably lighthearted premise that’s slowly-but-surely squandered by Montiel, as the filmmaker, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a relentlessly quirky comedy that remains curiously uninvolving for the duration of its short-yet-not-short-enough running time – with the movie’s arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by Montiel’s continually lackluster approach to the material (ie everything, from the pacing to the structure to the performances, feels a little off, somehow). And although the movie admittedly does contain a small handful of compelling sequences, including (and especially) a charming interlude detailing a date between Eddie and his love interest (Amanda Seyfried’s Judy), The Clapper generally progresses through an underwhelming storyline that’s been suffused with far-fetched, hopelessly unconvincing elements and attributes (eg that late-night talk show is eye-rollingly and unreasonably low-rent) – which does, in the final analysis, cement the picture’s place as a woefully half-baked endeavor that feels like it could (and should) be so much better. (Even Helms, usually an amiable, affable presence, comes off as grating and far-from-sympathetic here.)

*1/2 out of ****