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Uma Thurman and Michael Angarano star in new Max Winkler comedy

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

Like relationships themselves, many relationship movies are doomed.

The mild new comedy "Ceremony" begins with one sort of connection. A very young man named Sam gives a reading of his unpublished children's book, which involves a diver, a mermaid, romance and lots of violence.

When he finishes, the camera pulls back to show a room empty except for an equally boyish young man, Marshall, applauding enthusiastically. "I think that went well," says Sam (Michael Angarano) as he shepherds Marshall outside.

The two friends are back in touch for the first time in a year. Perhaps just in time, for Sam is so blessed with self-confidence that he will soon need a voice of reason. But as Marshall, taking a long time to recover from a trauma, Reece Thompson doesn't have an opinion that can't be changed.

It's an offbeat few minutes, and it seems possible that these two could have some picaresque adventures bouncing around New York's outer boroughs and the fringes of the publishing industry.

But like Sam, writer-director Max Winkler has something less credible planned. The two young men are on their way to the Hamptons, but only Sam knows that it is to crash a wedding and persuade the bride, Zoë, to run off.

Movies have been made from less, yet none of them attempted to pair Michael Angarano with Uma Thurman. Yes, the characters hooked up once, at a low point in Zoë's regular relationship, and have since been pen pals.

The problem is not so much that Thurman is at least five inches taller, almost 20 years older and exponentially more suave than Angarano. The movie runs on the obvious: Zoë is an adult, and Sam is a lost puppy whom she treated kindly.

Despite a fine performance by Thurman, who looks spectacular, there's nothing she can do to make their relationship plausible. The job is making it palatable. This movie is about Sam gradually realizing what everyone in the theater knows at first glance.

That's not to say "Ceremony" doesn't have its pleasures. Aside from Thurman, Jake M. Johnson steals every scene he is in as Zoë's boozy, pill-popping brother Teddy. Their back story comes out very effectively, as Winkler's script is good at dropping trails of character details, and the two are absolutely believable as siblings. Too bad nobody wrote a movie about them.

Then there's handsome Lee Pace, funny but much broader as Whit, Zoë's intended, a fatuous wildlife documentarian who is hosting and filming the wedding weekend. Whit sports a British-ish accent, and has much more of himself to be full of than Sam can manage.

For fans of Wes Anderson and Whit Stillman, "Ceremony" is sort of an outtakes reel: a lot of "Rushmore," a sampling of "Metropolitan," a touch of "The Life Aquatic." Along with its quirks and nods to J.D. Salinger and F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Ceremony" even supplies the requisite excellent soundtrack.

Winkler is best known as the son of actor Henry Winkler, and secondly as director of the web series "Clark and Michael" with Clark Duke and Michael Cera. This is his first feature, and he makes the novice mistake of thinking his surrogate is the most interesting character.

But if you can swallow a fair amount of whinging from Sam and Marshall, "Ceremony" is a movie where the characters gain valuable experiences and the audience loses only a little free time.

Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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