Movie review: ‘The Putt Putt Syndrome’

After watching the leaden comedy “The Putt Putt Syndrome,” you actually might understand less about marriage than you did going in. This dunderheaded look at a hapless appliance salesman’s pre-midlife marital crisis feels so inauthentic that it comes off, at best, as a wan sex farce and, at worst, as a lost segment of the old TV show “Love, American Style” — and just as dated.

The film’s title refers to the nickname studly divorced dad Tony (David Chokachi) has given the dull complacency that sets in after the initial heat of marriage. In fact, he’s so convinced his befuddled buddy — said appliance peddler — Johnny (Jason London) of this emotional and sexual downturn that Johnny decides it’s time to burn his BarcaLounger, buff his body and bewitch his frustrated wife, Sam (Thea Gill). That is, until, for no convincing reason, he becomes certain Sam is having an affair with the local butcher.

Bad sausage jokes and a lame cross-dressing bit ensue.

Writer-director Allen Cognata, who cast four of his children here, peppers this bitter stew with ineffective fantasy and dream sequences and a few too many F-bombs for its own good. Despite best efforts, the movie’s super-low budget (a reported $200,000) often peeks through.

“The Putt Putt Syndrome.” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes. At the Culver Plaza Theatres, Culver City.