Directed by Bruce McDonald. Starring Ellen Page and Ari Cohen. Rated 14A. Opens Friday, November 2, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

The Tracey Fragments begins with the sound of breaking glass, and things only get more literal after that. (Don't believe me? How about showing horses while playing Patti Smith's "Horses"?) Director Bruce McDonald, ramming a late–psychedelic era split-screen aesthetic through visual filters from the 1980s, settles on a frantic graphic style that attempts to paper over an almost complete absence of storytelling ideas.

What narrative exists isn't exactly compelling. The sad-sack tale of Tracey Berkowitz, adrift in unlovely Hamilton, Ontario, had a unique bite when it was all internal monologues from Vancouver novelist Maureen Medved, who adapted her own screenplay. Gimmicked up for the big screen, though, Tracey's tale plays out like a series of Oprah topics turned into music-video teasers.

Much of what does connect comes from the "dumb moon face"–as Tracey puts it–of Ellen Page, the promising Toronto actor who turned 20 this year but has already logged more than that number of movies and TV shows. She's done this tough-urchin shtick better elsewhere, though, most notably in 2005's Hard Candy . And as expressive as Page's eyes are, what she's given to say and do here is largely uninteresting.

The situations are worse than predictable: her dad (weak link Ari Cohen) is an angry autocrat; mom (Erin McMurtry) is a hard-drinking nut case; and Tracey's schoolmates are all thuggish bullies. The only twist is that her dopey little brother (Zie Souwand) thinks he's a dog–thereby sparing the filmmakers the bother of developing another character or writing more dialogue.

McDonald has previously proved himself capable of refreshing tired stories through adventurous shooting and cutting techniques, as in Hard Core Logo . But with Fragments , everything is so stylishly whacked-out that it's difficult to care about anyone as an actual person.

Tracey is just an absurd caricature of a troubled teen, so there's not much reason to root for her. Worse, the film offers no new insights into the mind or dilemmas of the 15-year-old on which it spends its time. So please leave the poor girl, and us, alone. Haven't we all suffered enough?

Links: Interview with director Bruce McDonald

The Tracey Fragments official site