By

The Only Living Boy in New York

Grating coming-of-age navel gazer

A whiny new college grad (Callum Turner) discovers that his father (Pierce Brosnan) a high-powered uptown publisher, is cheating on his mother (a good Cynthia Nixon) with a much younger woman (Kate Beckinsale). He begins to stalk her with the aim of breaking it up, but instead starts an affair of his own with her.

Meanwhile he interacts with his new downtown neighbor, a shambling, wisdom-dispensing alcoholic writer (Jeff Bridges, the only living reason to bother with this turkey).

The plot’s fake, none of the characters is remotely likeable (especially the lead), and the script stinks. In fact, a main reason why this is such a pretentious and uninvolving navel-gazer is that the tin-eared script came from Allan Loeb, who inflicted upon us the mawkish Collateral Beauty.

A disappointment from Marc Webb, who has previously enchanted us with the wonderfully insightful (500) Days of Summer and Gifted. (89 min)