‘In Crowd’ Runs Afoul of Its Club Privileges

“The In Crowd” is out of it. The earnest efforts of director Mary Lambert and her cast cannot keep this languid psychological drama, set at a posh Southern resort, from seeming trite and uninvolving.

Lori Heuring plays the lovely Adrien, whose mental institution doctor (Daniel Hugh Kelly) is confident that she is well enough to leave and take a job as a waitress at the resort, which attracts a slew of rich college kids who seem to spend their entire summer vacation there. The gist of Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin’s seriously under-inspired script is that just as Adrien has arrived at the point of putting a troubled past behind her, she is confronted with a lethal psychopath in the form of a glamorous Southern belle, Brittany (Susan Ward).

Brittany has been driven crazy by her late sister, who was popular but a nasty piece of work underneath; the same could now be said of the once-overlooked Brittany, who, in effect, has taken her sister’s place.

Brittany makes a huge fuss over Adrien, seemingly fearing that even though Adrien is a waitress she just might be personable and pretty enough to threaten her queen bee status. Brittany can be highly seductive with men and women alike, but you have the feeling that she really isn’t interested in sex at all but rather in taking pleasure in manipulating people.

Nothing much happens the first hour, with Brittany constantly giving Adrien the rush, and Adrien in turn being warned that Brittany is trouble. At long last Brittany goes over the edge, triggering a bloody finale.

You sense that we’re supposed to see Brittany’s craziness as a reflection of distorted, cliquish values of the country club set, but there isn’t enough characterization and observation in the script for Lambert to pull it off. Indeed, most of us would be driven crazy by the sheer boredom of these rich kids’ indolent summer existence. Heuring has sufficient poise and presence, but most everyone else is merely a type rather than an individual, though Ward certainly gives the role of Brittany her best shot.

Lambert’s determination to take Adrien and Brittany seriously is admirable in this era of genre spoofs, but to no real avail.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for violence, sexuality, language and drug content. Times guidelines: While the film’s sex is muted, its violence is not.

‘The In Crowd’

Susan Ward: Brittany

Lori Heuring: Adrien

Daniel Hugh Kelly: Dr. Henry Thompson

Tess Harper: Dr. Amanda Giles

A Warner Bros. presentation of a Morgan Creek production. Director Mary Lambert. Producer James G. Robinson. Executive producers Jonathan A. Zimbert and Michael Rachmil. Screenplay Mark Gibson & Philip Halprin. Cinematographer Tom Priestley. Editor Pasquale Buba. Music Jeff Rona. Costumes Jennifer L. Bryan. Production designer John D. Kretschmer. Set designers Collen Balance, Geoffrey Grisman. Set decorator Steve Davis. Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes.

In general release.