Review: Music producer returns home in indie drama ‘Mommy’s Box’

Writer-director-producer-actor Johnny Greenlaw fills his shaggy homecoming melodrama, “Mommy’s Box,” with minor characters and subplots, as though unsure where his story really lies. Though it’s mildly enjoyable throughout, the movie is ultimately just a loose collection of nice little scenes, held together by a few palliative clichés.

Greenlaw plays Nick, a New Yorker who spends his days working as a producer for flighty young musicians, and his nights partying himself into a stupor. When his mother dies, Nick returns to Long Island, where he deals with his sweet-but-scatterbrained brother, Joey (Bill Sorvino), and the various little mysteries that their eccentric mom left behind.

“Mommy’s Box” refers to a lock box that Nick’s mother secured when he was young. Greenlaw doesn’t rush to reveal what’s inside. Instead, a hefty percentage of the film is about Nick’s flirtation with a talented singer-songwriter named Jordana (played by Carly Brooke).

Nick’s job and his fling with Jordana allows Greenlaw to include a few musical interludes. There are other memorable sequences scattered throughout the picture, including an impressionistic “getting to know you” montage involving the two lovebirds, and a few painfully awkward moments with the hapless Joey.

But the “lost soul finds himself at home” plot is so common in indie cinema that it’s hard to make special. Greenlaw’s addition of comical New Age spiritualists, sage homeless guys and thuggish mooks feel like a first-time filmmaker throwing everything at the screen, hoping something will stick.

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‘Mommy’s Box’

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

Playing: Arena Cinelounge at the Montalban Theatre, Hollywood

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