Anna Paquin and Katie Holmes can't charm 'The Romantics'

In “The Romantics,” a clique of 20-something college friends reunites to celebrate the marriage of two of their own: Lila (Anna Paquin) and Tom (Josh Duhamel). Over the course of a booze-fueled evening in Maine, Laura (Katie ­Holmes), the maid of honor and nominally ­Lila’s best friend, broods. A lot. She dated the groom for five years before he left her for Lila, and she struggles with the thought of a marriage that could be hers.

Unfortunately, “The Romantics” is more exasperating than rewarding. Director Galt Niederhoffer (who adapted the screenplay from his own novel) has created solipsistic characters with so little chemistry that it’s hard to believe their closeness.

Niederhoffer makes some questionable choices: When the groom whispers a John Keats  verse during sex, for example, it’s not meant to be funny.

Paquin and Holmes hit the most poignant notes as they digest the possibility that passionate love might not necessarily be the kind of love that leads to marriage. It’s a gutting, illuminating realization, but the impact it leaves is too brief.