Wild Canaries

Attempting to capture the screwball essence of the old-school suspense-comedy ... Lawrence Michael Levine's flighty "Wild Canaries" lacks the filmmaking discipline required to pay effective homage.

Cute or presumptuous? It's your call where "Wild Canaries" is concerned.

The genre play is an interesting take on what has become a clich genre of Brooklyn relationship dramedy. But unfortunately, the execution is bungled along the way, and the film ends up feeling like not quite one thing and not quite the other.

While there are funny moments, mostly coming from Levine and Shawkat's performances, most of the film is lackluster, especially the relationships between the characters.