The Chateau

Slight, but fitfully amusing, this quirky comedy finds two Americans--sweet, dim Graham (Paul Rudd) and his adopted brother Allen (Romany Malco), a hip web entrepreneur--traveling to southern France to claim an estate bequeathed to them by a distant relative. When it's clear the place is deeply in debt, they attempt to sell it, but this causes the servants to react in increasingly disruptive ways and brings about revelations that thwart their plans. A largely improvised film, shot cheaply on digital video (visually, this seems as shabby as the rundown house itself), the comic invention in The Chateau flags as the plot winds on, but the cross-cultural humor elicits plenty of smiles, and Rudd, in particular, draws a rich portrait of a likable schlub (his clumsy efforts to communicate in French are especially funny). Optional. (F. Swietek)