Entertainment

The Family Tree

Pity the domesticated suburban male: If only his wife weren’t such a shrew, life would be dandy.

In this stale comedy, the blame for one family’s dysfunction lies with bitchy housewife Bunnie (Hope Davis), who has emasculated her husband (Dermot Mulroney) and turned her teen kids (Brittany Robertson and Max Thieriot) into a trampy underachiever and a gun-toting evangelical.

When Bunnie’s knocked out cold during some athletic midmorning adultery, short-term amnesia resets her brain to the early days of marriage, when baking and sex with her husband were her favorite things. Her wimpy spouse is, naturally, thrilled at this Stepford-ification — the old Bunnie would never have done such naughty things to him on a Ferris wheel.

“Family Tree,” which seems to have been written using indie-film Mad Libs, devolves into way too many quirky subplots involving a Mohawked rebel, a nerdy girl with a leg brace, a Goth lesbian schoolteacher, a pot-smoking preacher, two bungling jewel thieves, a jerky boss with a terrible hairpiece and a school jock who’s a peeping Tom.

“Mad Men” devotees may show up for Christina Hendricks, who plays Mulroney’s buxom secretary. Quite the acting stretch.