You know this person: the woman with the streaky mascara and bad highlights, having a screaming cellphone meltdown in a public place. Mira Sorvino’s Lucy is down from The Bronx for the day, and it’s not going well.
In Nancy Savoca’s “Union Square,” a romantic miscommunication finds Lucy knocking at the door of her estranged sister, Jenny (Tammy Blanchard), whose stringently muted clothing and tone — and preppy fiancé (Mike Doyle) — suggest she’s worked very hard to forget her family ties.
Lucy barges into Jenny’s life, and the film becomes a guessing game about how long her irritated sibling can keep up the genteel facade before the New Yawk accent starts to spill out. Sorvino brings a spark, but neither she nor Patti LuPone, in an amusing cameo, can overcome the clockwork-like plod to the end.