A nice guy, finishing last

In an essay about character actors of the 1930s and ‘40s, Luc Sante described Ralph Bellamy as “the other guy, the extra man, the school pal you forgot about until you saw his obituary, and then missed him without knowing why.” Asked what his ex-wife’s new fiance looked like in “His Girl Friday,” Cary Grant cracked, “He looks like Ralph Bellamy.” Long after he ceased to be played by Bellamy himself, “the Ralph Bellamy character” has remained a staple of romantic comedies.

What ever happens to that guy? Finding out is the conceit of Michael Showalter’s “The Baxter,” which he wrote, directed and stars in. Elliott Sherman is the substitute lover dumped at the altar when his bride’s roguish ex bursts into the church to deliver the mea culpa that wins her back. The movie opens on this high note, sending up the dumbest of all romantic comedy conventions (the triumph of the leading man is so absolute that even the jilted groom’s parents clap at the end of his speech). Then it backtracks to show how Elliott got there. He is a mild-mannered accountant who, moments after meeting his dorky soul mate, the free-spirited Cecil Mills (Michelle Williams), is blindsided by the glamorous Caroline Swann (Elizabeth Banks), a beautiful editor who says “steamed asparagus and white navy bean” when she means “green and beige.”

“The Baxter” is a tender love story and a dead-on lampoon of the genre, but its main drawback is that Showalter is egregiously miscast in the title role. “Baxter” is Elliott’s grandmother’s term for the Ralph Bellamy type, but Showalter is nothing like the self-confident, albeit mama-dependent, oilman who threatened to win Irene Dunne away from Cary Grant in “The Awful Truth.” The Oklahoma millionaire has been replaced here by a twee prepster with an inferiority complex. A veteran sketch comic, Showalter set out to make a comedy in the Howard Hawks vein, but “The Baxter” lacks the fluidity and zing of those films, mostly because Showalter’s halting awkwardness permeates the movie.

It’s easy to see how Elliott and Cecil would be drawn to each other -- they both read the dictionary for fun. But what would possess a slinky “It” girl like Caroline to settle for Elliott, not to mention agree to a honeymoon in Yosemite when she would have preferred Majorca, is never made clear or justified. The minute her hilarious movie-fantasy of an ex-boyfriend, Bradley (Justin Theroux), shows up, however, the question is rendered moot. Bradley is a rom-com cliche writ large. A scientist and world-traveler, he’s also a break-dancer who loves the company of old folks and cries at the drop of a hat. Elliott knows he’s a goner from the moment he sets eyes on Bradley, but valiantly soldiers on until the end.

Not that “The Baxter” doesn’t have its charms: It’s sweet, occasionally funny and positively giddy about sending up the conventions of the genre. Elliott relies on the advice of his best friends and neighbors, a gay guy who considers himself dressed in a pair of abbreviated briefs and a sad, sassy single girl with a penchant for astrology. Peter Dinklage plays a high-maintenance wedding planner given to lines like, “I’m not a marriage counselor, I’m a marriage maker.” And Williams is sweet and vulnerable as the overlooked Ms. Right struggling with her own unsatisfying relationship with an unsupportive guys’ guy (Paul Rudd) who doesn’t appreciate her artistic aspirations.

But perhaps the most notable thing about “The Baxter” is what it lacks: This particular Ralph Bellamy character lacks the original’s easy confidence and comfort in his own skin. Bellamy’s hallmark was not that he was clueless, exactly, he was merely indifferent to Grant’s nervy, hipster edge. He could lose the girl without being a loser, in other words, because he breathed a different, less rarefied (but more sane and straightforward) atmosphere, where he was a pillar of the community. But even in contrast to the preening, neurotic narcissist who steals his shallow girlfriend, Elliott looks like a doofus. It must be a sign of the times that “The Baxter” only offers a choice between doofuses and the Theroux character, against whose hotness and coolness no nice guy stands a chance.

*

‘The Baxter’

MPAA rating: PG-13 for brief sexual humor and some drug references

Times guidelines: Harmless

An IFC Films release. Director Michael Showalter. Screenplay by Michael Showalter. Producers Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray, Reagan Silber. Director of photography Tim Orr. Editors Jacob Craycroft, Sarah Flack. Production designer Mark White. Costume designers Jill Kliber, Jill Newell. Music Theodore Shapiro, Craig Wedren. 1 hour 31 minutes.

In limited release.