Review: A lifeless ‘Power of Few’

Lives intersect, but so do Tarantino-esque clichés, in “The Power of Few,” a ham-fisted, timeline-altering variety pack of crime set in New Orleans.

Five vignettes take place over the same small chunk of temporal real estate, ending in a ripple effect of violence. A desperate young man (Devon Gearhart) needs medicine for his baby brother; two spies (Christian Slater, Nicky Whelan) hunt a possible terrorist; a flirty messenger (Q’orianka Kilcher, who also produced) rescues a man (Jesse Bradford) targeted by a gang member (Anthony Anderson); and Christopher Walken does Christopher Walken as a Philosophical Derelict.

Does the African American schoolgirl (Tione Johnson) wandering through all the stories hold the key? Her name is Few — look at the title.

PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments

Writer-director Leone Marucci has a scratch-worthy itch for plump visuals and flashy camera moves, but a limp way with dialogue and story, and — despite his cast — no grip on directing actors. He can’t wait to get to the blow-your-mind stuff, to the detriment of all the filler you don’t care about anyway.

Production notes reveal that creative decisions from casting through editing were interactively aided by “fans” via the Internet. One can only imagine that process was more interesting to behold than the derivative, ho-hum end product.

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“The Power of Few.” MPAA rating: R for violence, language and brief drug use. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. At Rave Cinemas 18, Howard Hughes, Los Angeles.