Energized ‘Bad Manners’ Puts Couples in Conflict

In the early moments of “Bad Manners,” the filmed adaptation of David Gilman’s “Ghost in the Machine,” middle-aged academics Wes and Nancy Westlund (David Strathairn, Bonnie Bedelia) return to their New England home to find the wife’s old college boyfriend Matt (Saul Rubinek) and his latest girlfriend Kim (Caroleen Feeney) standing at the door.

Though Matt is expected, it takes a moment for Nancy to recognize him. He’s gained so much weight, she says.

The line would be innocuous enough if it weren’t such a matter of the pot calling the kettle black. Bedelia has become so large that our immediate impression, given her shock at seeing Matt’s girth, is that Nancy’s pregnant. On the contrary, we soon learn, the couple haven’t had sex since Methuselah was a freshman.

I’m not trying to show my own bad manners. This double-take is just an example of the odd mistakes made in this otherwise energized version of Gilman’s play, a kind of knockoff of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” The ages and relative conditions of the characters are important to the elements in the story, and movie audiences aren’t accustomed to supplying quantum leaps of imagination.

“Bad Manners” throws these sexually contrasting couples, the barren academics and their nocturnally active guests, under one roof for two or three days of airy contention, sexual misconduct, jealousy, envy, accusations and remorse. Here are the dynamics of the foursome:

* Wes resents Matt, a renowned musicologist who’s staying over while doing a series of lectures at nearby Harvard. At the same time, he’s having trouble resisting his apparent seduction by Kim.

* Nancy is a tenured university professor, bewildered by her husband’s faded passion and his dimming ambition.

* Matt’s a condescending, self-adoring bore who regards Kim as a glorified assistant, even though it was her computer wizardry that isolated a musical mystery he’s about to propose as evidence of the existence of God.

* Kim is a mystery in herself, a temptress who, when she’s not thrashing the sheets with Matt, is coming on to Wes or trying to convince Nancy to recapture her sexual youth with the available studs at nearby college bars.

Compounding all this is a disappearing $50 bill. Wes believes Kim has stolen one from him, she believes he’s stolen one from her, and their mates are caught in the cross-fire. Unlike his play, Gilman’s script answers the mystery of the $50 bill as well as the question of whether Wes and Kim consummate their flirtation, as Matt charges. The information is more than we want, or need, to know.

The real fuel of the story is in the nature and tensile strength of the relationships, and until they give in to their urges to tie up the loose ends, Gilman and director Jonathan Kaufer (“Soup for One”) keep us off balance and interested.

The four actors give solid performances, despite some odd casting. Feeney (“Denise Calls Up”) is gorgeous, but too old and too obviously wise to be playing someone the others would regard, even for a minute, as a college bimbo. Still, her performance, and the lion’s share of the script’s best lines, make her “Bad Manners’ ” best asset.

* MPAA rating: R for language and sexuality. Times guidelines: plenty of frank talk, some sexual action and attempted seduction.

‘Bad Manners’

David Strathairn: Wes

Bonnie Bedelia: Nancy

Saul Rubinek: Matt

Caroleen Feeney: Kim

Phaedra Cinema presents a Davis Entertainment Classics production in association with Skyline Entertainment Partners and Wavecrest Pictures. Directed by Jonathan Kaufer. Adapted by David Gilman from his play “Ghost in the Machine.” Produced by J. Todd Harris, Stephen Nemeth and Alan Kaplan. Executive producer John Davis. Original music Ira Newborn. Cinematography Denis Maloney. Costume design Katharine Jane Bryant. Production design Sharon Lomofsky. Editing, Robin Katz. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

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