Butler's Cinema Scene

Jason Schwartsman, Olympia Dukakis

“7 Chinese Brothers” My rating: C+ 

76 minutes | No MPAA rating

When we first meet Larry, the main character (one is loathe to call him a protagonist) of “7 Chinese Brothers,” he’s being fired from his bottom-scraping job in the kitchen of a trendy Austin restaurant for stealing from the tip jar and siphoning off liquor from the bar.

Caught red handed, his response is basically a shrug and a wise-guy remark.  Out in the parking lot he keys the car of his chief accuser.

Larry is, not to put too fine a point on it, a slacker asshole. A jerk. he should be intolerable.

Except that Larry is portrayed by Jason Schwartzman, one of those actors who manages to bring to every role a modicum of empathy and insight.

In Bob Byington’s shambling comedy Schwartzman walks a fine line between creepy and compelling.

This is one of those movies that goes nowhere fast. There’s not a whole lot of plot.

The most fulfilling relationship on screen is between Larry and his dog, a spectacularly lazy pug who elicits laughs every time he appears.  There should be an Oscar category for animal thespians.

Larry hangs with his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis), who has plenty of attitude (you can see where Larry got his smart mouth). A trip to the retirement home also allows Larry to visit  Norwood (Tunde Adebimpe), a nurses’ aide who has a sideline peddling the pills left over after residents expire.

Norwood is the kind of guy who wears his scrubs and stethoscope to the bars in the hope that women will think he’s an M.D. Larry is amazed that this ploy actually works. Perhaps it’s because beneath the scam Norwood is actually a very nice person.

Larry’s latest job is at one of those franchise oil and lube places, where he’s drawn to his new boss, Lupe (Eleanore Pienta), a single mom.  Maybe it’s because he wants to impress her, but our feckless leading man actually applies himself to the work at hand — though not without plenty of snarky commentary.

With its low-keyed approach and lack of forward momentum, “7 Chinese Brothers” (the title seems totally arbitrary, though the R.E.M. song of the same name plays over the closing credits) serves mostly as an example of how Schwartzman can inject life into even the least promising characters.

| Robert W. Butler