House of D

First-time filmmaker David Duchovny's script for this coming-of-age tale set in New York circa the early '70s feels like a really bad writing exercise (ersatz Tennessee Williams) and his halting direction doesn't much help. A lethal combination of literary affectation and sloppy sentimentality, House of D is mostly told in flashback by Tom Warshaw (Duchovny) to his son on the latter's 13th birthday. The title comes from the women's house of detention, where a 13-year old Tom (played by Anton Yelchin)--who lives with his recently widowed suicide-prone mother (Duchovny's wife Téa Leoni)--converses with an inmate who shouts out advice through the window of her upper-story cell, mostly about how to deal with the crush he's developed on a classmate. So long as the picture concentrates on the youngsters, it has some modest charm, but the adult characters are all badly overdrawn, especially so in the case of young Tom's best friend Pappas (Robin Williams), a mentally challenged older man who becomes jealous over the boy's interest in the girl, leading to an action that will change all of their lives. The role would be a contrivance under the best of circumstances, but Williams is probably the worst choice imaginable to play a saintly man-child. Pretentious, melodramatic, and sappy, this is not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an audio commentary by writer-director-star David Duchovny, a 15-minute Q&A featurette “All Access Festival Pass” with David, the 12-minute “Building the House of D” behind-the-scenes featurette, four deleted scenes (8 min.), “The Old Neighborhood” video montage and location footage (4 min.), an alternate ending (2 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)