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Feb 06, 2015 By Kyle Turner Web Exclusive

Luke Matheny seems to gravitate towards a certain subject matter: impossible, often unrequited love. In one of his early short films, “Earano”—a clever little retelling of Cyrano De Bergerac that substitutes the protagonist’s unwieldy nose for cartoonishly large ears—our hero faces the same kind of annoying, little, occasionally self-imposed obstacles that one encounters when trying to get their head in the game of love. In Matheny’s Academy Award-winning short film God of Love (surely, one of my favorite things ever), the director shines a light on a young man (played by Matheny himself) who is more enamored of the idea of love and a person than actually allowing himself to listen and really bond with his object of desire (Marian Brock). Which brings us to Matheny’s feature debut, Lovesick, which follows Charlie Darby (Matt LeBlanc), who is literally psychopathic when in love.

This, it seems, is the cute, pseudo-screwbally way of saying that Charlie becomes delusional and hyper-possessive of anyone whom he dates, paranoid that his partners’ every action is indicative of a betrayal of trust and a sign of infidelity. Let me be clear, this is not cute. Nor is it very funny. The funny/slightly depressing thing about Matheny’s first feature length film is that none of what made his aforementioned shorts so lovely and charming is actually present in the film: there’s a nice dose of self-deprecation that’s in both “Earano” and God of Love, and both have nice directorial flourishes. The latter short in particular is beautiful, shimmering with every frame and playfully reminiscent of the French New Wave , recalling a joviality of Truffaut. While Lovesick is competently directed, it’s just barely economical, and any sense of style fades into obscurity.

It’s frustrating, though, that Matheny’s voice is hard to find anywhere besides the ostensible subject, especially given that the screenplay is by someone else (Dean Young). There’s a pseudo-self-awareness intact that’s irksome and provides a fake sense of insight that doesn’t really make sense in context. And worse, the cast seems just as confused as to what to do with the painful material as Matheny is in trying to make himself visible through it. LeBlanc has played desperate before to some acclaim, both on Friends and in his show Episodes, but every line rings false. Certain scenes, like the ones where Charlie tries to drop random words in order to get Molly (Ali Larter) to confess to the affair he thinks she’s having, feel like gags from Friends episodes stretched to their limit and wrung dry of any sincere humor. (Also an issue is that there’s virtually no chemistry between LeBlanc and Larter.) Though its message is ostensibly “Gee, we’re all dumb when we’re in love!”, the film is too naïve, dumb, and mean spirited to give a nuanced portrait on the pain of desire. For that, you might as well watch Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats. Or reruns of Friends.

www.gravitasventures.com/lovesick

Author rating: 2/10