Sara Stewart

Sara Stewart

Movies

Little makes sense in dull comedy ‘Are You Here’

The ’80s comic strip “Bloom County” featured a character named Steve Dallas, an obnoxious, sexist jerk who favored convertibles, busty women and aviator sunglasses. Halfway through Matthew Weiner’s supposed comedy, I found myself hoping Owen Wilson’s character of the same name — and traits — was a subtle homage. At least that’d make some kind of sense.

As it stands, there’s little to explain the existence of this confoundingly unfunny film. It’s as if a talented cast (Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Poehler) assembled to make a comedy and at the last minute was told to play everything straight. Or writer/director Weiner (creator of “Mad Men”) dared himself to see how lame a piece of work he could get produced on the strength of his well-deserved reputation for TV greatness.

Even the talented trio of Galifianakis, Wilson and Poehler can’t salvage this flick.Millennium Entertainment

Wilson’s Steve Dallas is a debauched Annapolis weatherman known for showing up to work high and for bedding every woman he meets. His best friend from childhood is Ben (Galifianakis), a stoner with bipolar tendencies, whose father has just died. They make the trip to their tiny hometown, where Ben’s shrew of a sister Terri (Poehler) is appalled to learn their dad has left his farm, country store and fortune to Ben. She also heaps scorn on their father’s extremely young widow, Angela (Laura Ramsey), whose sexual powers are chronicled in great detail in Dad’s will.

Ben decides, for no apparent reason, to gift the farm to Steve, then has a breakdown. Angela, a sexy Earth mother, sticks around to tend to Ben while having inexplicable sparks with Steve (it’s only the sheer Owen Wilson-ness shining through this character that redeems him in the slightest). Terri, in the process of grimly trying to conceive a child with her husband (Joel Gretsch) — a plotline that really underscores this screenplay’s misogynist vibe — eventually pressures her brother into razing the store and building a supermarket franchise. This isn’t a plot twist, it’s a resolution.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what it all means. Nothing makes sense, and then the movie ends. Perhaps the film’s title is actually a reference to Weiner calling to his comic muse; the answer is a resounding “No.”