Movie review: ‘Yeardley’

“Yeardley” is an unconvincing tale of one man’s downward spiral as a result of a sexual indiscretion. Writer-director Heath C. Michaels attempts an adult character study of narcissism and bad karma but never gets beyond the surface of his title character or the one-note folks around him.

Jeff Yeardley (Jesse Bernstein) loses his job after an office affair balloons into accusations of sexual harassment. His bitter wife, Susan (Saskia Grace Holmes), then leaves him, allowing Jeff to see their young son (Garrett Geoghegan) only on awkwardly supervised visits. When Jeff finally lands work at a friend’s collection agency, he becomes a pawn in a kinky game between a pair of predatory female co-workers, and it’s soon “Fatal Attraction”-lite. It gets worse from there — that is, Jeff’s predicament and the film itself, which fails to align us with the would-be stud at the center of the contrived proceedings.

Although Bernstein does what he can with his thankless role, the supporting cast of newbie actors (some of whom really aren’t camera ready) cannot surmount the script’s hackneyed dialogue, trumped-up conflicts and, ultimately, Michaels’ weak direction.

It’s a huge accomplishment for any feature-length film to be completed, much less released, on “Yeardley’s” reported $15,000 microbudget. Too bad the result is so dispiriting.

“Yeardley.” MPAA rating: Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, West Hollywood.