Local comic drama 'Diminished Capacity' short on comedy, drama

Terry Kinney's "Diminished Capacity" possesses an innate sweetness, almost an innocence, that, coupled with a robust appreciation for Chicago and the Cubs, should make it a gotta-see movie for the Windy City market.

Instead, this well-meaning independent project squanders a stellar cast (including a wallpaper cameo by baseball great Ernie Banks) and a meditation on the importance of memories in a comic drama flatter than Iowa and just as soggy.

Matthew Broderick, radiating the energy of a 5-watt bulb, stars as Cooper, an employee of a major Chicago newspaper, presumably the Tribune, since he walks outside it in a scene.

Complications from a head injury have made Cooper extremely forgetful, a case of "diminished capacity." He has stopped covering politics and taken up editing comics. (What exactly does this movie say about comics editors?)

Under pressure, Cooper reluctantly agrees to take time off and go to rural Missouri to visit his aging, added Uncle Rollie, played by Alan Alda with a wavering accent that sounds vaguely like a character from "Deliverance."

Rollie hails from an established Hollywood stable of endearingly eccentric relatives. He edits "poetry" typed out by fish connected to the keyboard by strings. He keeps a snake in the rafters.

And he has a secret that he tells everyone in town. He owns a 1909 baseball card of the legendary Frank "Wildfire" Schulte, worth a fortune. Already, a local bumpkin Donny (Jim True-Frost) has tried to steal it.

Cooper convinces Uncle Rollie to sell his card at a big Chicago sports memorabilia convention scheduled that very weekend. Off they go, accompanied by Charlotte (an underused Virginia Madsen), Cooper's high school flame conveniently divorced from the town's mayor, and Charlotte's son Dillon (Jimmy Bennett), named after the marshal in TV's western "Gunsmoke."

"Chicago people, they're nuts!" Rollie exclaims after he arrives in the Windy City.

"Diminished Capacity" strives for effortless charm, but winds up with a bad case of narrative inertia. Neither the characters nor plot can goose along this plodding production, something of a surprise considering that director Kinney is one of the founding fathers of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, known for its raw, in-your-face theatrics.

Once the quartet reaches Chicago, the movie breaks out of its doldrums, but not always in a good way. Dylan Baker injects some narrative caffeine as Mad Dog McClure, a psycho Cubs fan (is there another kind?) and memorabilia dealer at the Chicago convention.

"I won't let this team kill me!" he shouts. A big-hearted, honest dealer, Mad Dog doesn't condone his ruthless competitor Lee Vivyan (Bobby Cannavale) ripping off Uncle Rollie. "People who don't know what they have, don't deserve to keep it!" Lee says, justifying his greed.

Had "Diminished Capacity" centered on these characters, now that would make a Chicago comedy.

Regrettably, Kinney's movie sticks with the story and characters laid out in screenwriter Sherwood Kiraly's original novel, until the ending, a shrill, awkward, comically mistimed convention confrontation reeking with artifice.

The emotions have been pasted on to this movie, from the loveless romantic subplot to the phony instant camaraderie among new pals.

How ironic that Kiraly's fascination with memory - both the short-term and nostalgic kinds - is stuck in such an unmemorable movie.

"Diminished Capacity"

Rating: 2 stars

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, Virginia Madsen, Dylan Baker.

Directed by: Terry Kinney.

Other: An IFC Films release. At the Century Centre in Chicago and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park. No MPAA rating (language). 89 minutes.