Textuality is too slick for its own good

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      Starring Jason Lewis and Carly Pope. Rated PG.

      There’s so much to be said about the effect of having social-media tools in everyone’s hands that any movie attempting to explore even a part of that is probably doomed to appear quickly dated. That’s a problem with Textuality, set in a gleaming, high-towered Toronto, although the film lets itself off the temporal hook a little by sticking to generally pleasant character comedy and not getting too enmeshed in technology.

      Mostly, it’s a vehicle to show off the charms of its romantic leads, Vancouverite Carly Pope and Yank Jason Lewis. Pope gets the better of it as Simone, a bohemian artist caught up in sexual entanglements. She’s got a long-term problem with a married guy (Eric McCormack) and offsets this with three other bumblers she cares little about.


      Watch the trailer for Textuality.

      Simone’s dance card gets even more crowded when she bumps into Lewis’s Breslin. The extra-handsome stockbroker, recently left at the altar and failing in his work, is coasting on his looks and also juggling a rather undifferentiated threesome. Thanks to the realities of Blackberries and other devices, this is more complicated than ever, as illustrated by—or commented on—text that appears on-screen like cartoon word or thought balloons.

      Although the actors are amiably handled by director Warren P. Sonoda, the script from Liam Card (also inadequately funny as Breslin’s requisite Zach Galifianakas–type best pal) doesn’t keep adding cleverness as it moves along, is weak on Breslin’s inner life, and contains little actual sex.

      In fact, many of the characters are surprisingly moralistic about the behaviour of young singles just like themselves. It’s possible that the hippest things here are those Ray Charles tunes on the soundtrack.

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