Movie Review: 'Stuck in Love' -- 2 stars

Stuck in Love
2 stars
Directed by Josh Boone
Starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins
Rated R
Opens Friday at the Sunshine Cinema

“Stuck in Love” stars a lot of beautiful people experiencing the sorts of problems that only befall the most gorgeous among us. Greg Kinnear mopes around after Jennifer Connelly divorces him, taking no solace in his sexual encounters with Kristen Bell. See what I mean?

To be fair, writer-director Josh Boone isn’t totally divorced from reality in his telling of this triplicate story following a father (Kinnear), daughter (Collins) and son (Nat Wolff), whose wounds stemming from the aforementioned divorce manifest in various ways.

Kinnear’s William, a prize-winning author, hasn’t written anything since Connelly’s Erica left him. Collins’ Samantha has a book deal but won’t speak to mom. Wolff’s Rusty obsesses over a pretty girl at school when he’s not getting high.

The movie offers a poignant evocation of the mysterious writing process, which William likens to the act of listening for a still, beating heart. The screenplay is speckled with quotes from Flannery O’Connor and other luminaries, giving it a vestige of literacy.

But “Stuck in Love” is a picturesque J. Crew catalog masquerading as a movie. It’s set in a world of resplendent beach homes and scrubbed-clean towns at Christmas, populated by genetically blessed people who wouldn’t know a real concern if it smacked them in the face.

Their suffering falls flat and the movie evaporates in a wisp of cloying sentimentality.