ACTRESS-writer Jennifer Westfeldt channels Woody Allen again for “Ira & Abby,” a more formulaic but still plenty funny and well-cast follow-up to her delightful 2001 hit, “Kissing Jessica Stein.”
Ira (Chris Messina) is a 33-year-old grad student on the Upper West Side, so neurotic and indecisive that his shrink has dropped him after 12 years. His very first trip to the gym ends with his accepting a marriage proposal from the woman selling memberships, the free-spirited Abby (Westfeldt).
Comic complications include Abby’s tangled romantic past and Ira’s longtime ex-girlfriend (Maddie Corman). And then there’s the seeming incompatibility of Ira’s parents, both tightly wound analysts (Judith Light and Robert Klein) themselves, and Abby’s hippie-ish folks, voice-over artists played by Frances Conroy and the inimitable Fred Willard.
“Ira & Abby,” which hilariously climaxes with an intervention involving a roomful of the protagonists’ shrinks (among them Jason Alexander), isn’t as sharply directed as “Jessica Stein,” but it’s still a formidable crowd-pleaser.
IRA & ABBY
Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (profanity, sex). Opens tomorrow at the Empire and the Sunshine.