Hello I Must Be Going

Director Todd Louiso wades into Noah Baumbach’s trademark waist-deep waters of thirtysomething identity crisis, and comes up with a pearl. Melanie Lynskey is something of a revelation as Amy, a depressed, recently divorced woman reduced to living at home with her well-off but financially threatened parents. Sarah Koskoff’s humor-simmering screenplay bubbles with situational laughs. Emotionally crippled to the extent that she wears the same ratty t-shirt day in and day out, Amy hasn’t left her folks’ McMansion for three months. A dinner party concocted by Amy’s accusatory mom Ruth (Blythe Danner) introduces Amy to her emotional equal in the guise of sensitive 19-year-old actorboy Jeremy (Christopher Abbott). Lustful sparks fly, and it’s off to the races for a privately thrusting yet publicly bumpy recovery for Amy.

An ill-conceived use of commenting singer-songwriter music by Laura Veirs mucks up the action here and there, but fortunately doesn’t derail the story. “Hello I Must Be Going” is a delightful slow-boil adult romantic comedy that taps increasingly harder on your funny bone before letting you have it with a brilliantly conceived scene with exponentially embarrassing implications. Here’s some articulate and sexy fun that doesn’t get stuck in its own mud.

Rated R. 95 mins. (B) (Three Stars - out of five/no halves)

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