MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Lonely in America’ a Low-Wattage Comedy

Ranjit Chowdry is a wonderful comedian who lights up “Lonely in America” (at the Beverly Center Cineplex) with his deftness and effervescence. But he’s not enough to propel this slight and underwritten comedy about a young man from India trying to make his way in New York.

Chowdry makes the isolation of this naive eager-to-please fellow with his formal British speech quite real, but debuting director Barry Alexander Brown and his co-writers find only exceedingly mild and scarcely inspired humor in his attempts to overcome his predicament. On the whole, Brown and his colleagues are lots better at drawing believable characters than in coming up with funny jokes and gags.

Having completed a night school computer course, Chowdry’s Arun through a fluke lands an office job that allows him to escape working for his uncle (Tirlok Malik), a Manhattan newsstand tycoon. There he meets the pretty girl (Adelaide Miller) who traditionally eludes wistful Chaplin/Keaton types like Chowdry until the final reel and also a womanizing cad (Robert Kessler, a big macho guy who is genuinely witty and hilarious) who has a dastardly ulterior motive, to be sure, for inviting Arun to share his trendy bachelor pad.

The film is handsomely photographed by Phil Katzman, but it bounces along from one scene to the next without building up any momentum. The kindest thing to be said for “Lonely in America” (rated PG-13 for some adult situations) is that it is more at home on a TV set than on a theater screen.

‘Lonely in America’

Ranjit Chowdry: Arun

Adelaide Miller: Faye

Tirlok Malik: Max/Ashok

Robert Kessler: Jim

An Arista Films presentation of an Apple production. Director Barry Alexander Brown. Producers Tirlok Malik, Phil Katzman. Screenplay by Satyajit Joy Palit, Brown; from a story by Malik. Cinematographer Katzman. Editor Tula Goenka. Costumes Mary Marsicano. Music Gregory Arnold. Art director Eduardo Capilla. Set decorator Irina Bilic. Sound Shulka Gery. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG-13 (some adult situations).