Review: Taking a dim view of ‘Brightest Star’

Your tolerance for the navel-gazing and smug behavior of aimless twentysomethings will be put to the test during “Brightest Star,” a flat indie romance from Maggie Kiley, making her feature directing debut.

Beware any movie that talks about what it is before being what it is. If the gooey opening-theme narration on bright stars and black holes from our recently dumped protagonist (a charisma-free Chris Lowell) doesn’t chafe, the endless shots of him staring moonily into space surely will. He doesn’t have a name, incidentally — another annoyingly twee detail indicative of this “I gotta find me!” movie’s vibe.

It seems things were peachy with dream girl Charlotte (an appropriately flinty Rose McIver) until she couldn’t abide boyfriend’s slackerdom any longer. (He likes to say things like “I believe in moments of clarity.”) His solution: Take a soulless corporate job and become the dude he thinks she wants.

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Will it work? Does it ever in these movies? At least that cute, kind, hipster musician (Jessica Szohr) accepts no-name for who he is. Think that’ll lead to anything?

Allison Janney shows up at the end as a no-nonsense astronomer. Think she’ll have advice? Is “destiny” just another word for “predictable”?

“Brightest Star.” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes. Playing: At Laemmle NoHo 7, North Hollywood.