Tough to Warm Up to ‘Let It Snow’

The Marcus brothers’ “Let It Snow” opens and closes on a jaunty note: It’s the tedious, relentlessly talky 80 minutes in between that’s the problem. It stars Kipp Marcus, who also wrote and produced this romantic comedy, and was directed by his brother Adam.

In a prologue featuring no less than the famed Living Theater’s Judith Malina as his grandmother and Bernadette Peters as his mother, 5-year-old James Ellis experiences his father leaving for another woman and his grandmother’s admonition never to love--it seems his grandfather walked out too. During his childhood and adolescence, James observes his mother changing men almost as often as she changes outfits. It’s no wonder that by the time James (now played by Marcus) is about to graduate from high school that he is clenched and neurotic--so much so that he loses his ambitious first love, Sarah (Alice Dylan), who’s off to college while he vaguely aspires to be a chef.

When they cross paths in Manhattan some five years later, James is still the same, working as a waiter and never making it to culinary school. He attempts to work out his angst in stand-up comedy. Sarah is a successful TV marketing executive on the verge of marrying a handsome Englishman. But when James’ mother belatedly explains to him that she ran through all those men as a form of revenge, and that it was just foolish pride that kept her from trying to get back her husband, James is fired up enough to make a another try with Sarah.

The problem with this film and countless others like it is that there’s no detachment from James. His self-absorption would be a wonder to behold in its sheer absolute totality were it not so incredibly boring. Nothing but his blocked existence is of the slightest interest to James, but the Marcuses give us the impression that they think James’ frustrated state is the most important thing in the world. He does manage to wind up with his own restaurant--we’re left to guess that his highly successful best friend (Henry Simmons) has backed him in his dream. But it seems pretty clear that if James should win Sarah after all, it will be because she acknowledges at last that she’s always loved him and not because of any apparent maturity on his part.

*

The Marcuses also proceed as if their film were fresh and new instead of echoing everything from “Goodbye, Columbus” to “When Harry Met Sally. . . .” Kipp Marcus is nice-looking but lacks the presence of both Dylan and Simmons, who are the film’s standouts. In her screen debut, Dylan expresses Sarah’s conflicting emotions with wit and clarity. Simmons is seen comparatively briefly but has terrific impact. Actually, Kipp Marcus has done himself no favors: He has written himself a part that allows him to run off at the mouth virtually full time, whereas he might have gained more sympathy for James if he just shut up once in a while. Peters takes the film to a whole new level in her big moment of confession; unfortunately, it’s her only substantial scene. Steeped in self-indulgence, “Let It Snow” is so much slush.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: Some language.

‘Let It Snow’

Kipp Marcus: James Ellis

Alice Dylan: Sarah Milson

Henry Simmons: Mitch Jennings

Bernadette Peters: Elise Ellis

An Artistic License Films release of a Girl and Boy production. Executive producers Donny Epstein, Yeeshai Gross. Director Adam Marcus. Writer-producer Kipp Marcus. Cinematographer Ben Weinstein. Editor Joe Klotz. Costumes Bobby Pearce. Production designer Melissa Schrock. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Exclusively at the Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741, and the University Cinemas, 4245 Campus Drive, Irvine, (949) 854-8811.