HARD come, easy go would best describe Irene’s love life.
Always on the lookout for a man (someone like her deceased dad, please), she oft finds one. Just as oft, she loses him early on.
As Irene (Tanna Frederick) laments after one breakup in director Henry Jaglom’s LA talkathon “Irene in Time”: “I did everything by the rules [but] I blew it.”
Perhaps her woes are caused by her neediness or the way she belittles suitors. “You make me feel like an ugly eighth-grader,” the bottle redhead says.
Since 1971, Jaglom (now 68) has made a career directing, writing and producing low-budget films about the loves of the well-off, usually females.
His films (think of a mumblecore flick with and for the over-50 crowd) are an acquired taste — and, of course, some are tastier than others.
“Irene in Time” (the title comes from the name Irene’s father gave to a boat he won in a bet) has some witty dialogue and sprightly performances by Karen Black, Andrea Marcovicci, Victoria Tennant and others.
I wholeheartedly support Jaglom’s refusal to join the Hollywood establishment, but certain plot twists in “Irene in Time” don’t stand up to scrutiny. And do we really need to spend 95 minutes watching a neurotic bundle of hang-ups make a wreck of her life?
Running time: 95 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sexuality). At the Quad, 13th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.