Review: Take Care

Leslie Bibb should be a bigger star than she is. Lovely and statuesque, at home in any genre, she's an always welcome presence. As warm and sparky as she can be, she's wasted in Take Care, the directorial debut of Sex and the City writer Liz Tuccillo.

Bibb plays Frannie, a special events coordinator confined to her New York City walk-up after breaking an arm and a leg in a car crash. Her sister Fallon (Nadia Dajani) keeps insisting she recuperate at her suburban New Jersey home, but Frannie resists - she has friends that can help her plus she wants to retain her own personal space. The invalid soon discovers that those friends are nowhere to be found and even has to bully her neighbour (Michael Stahl-David) into making her a sandwich.

Feeling desperate, she calls her ex-boyfriend Devon (Thomas Sadoski), who recently sold his Internet startup for six million dollars, and lays on the guilt trip. She took care of him for two years when he had colon cancer - after which he promptly broke up with her - it's only right that he take care of her now. He reluctantly agrees, a decision that chagrins his current girlfriend Jodi (Betty Gilpin) who already has unresolved jealousy issues. Though Devon initially behaves as if he's been sentenced to perform community service, he and Frannie are soon bonding over Law and Order reruns and enjoying each other's company again.

Take Care never really shakes the confines of its claustrophobic setting and implausible plot. Why wouldn't Devon just pay for someone to look after Frannie full-time? The tone of the film shifts from being broad to sincere, which might have been intentionally done to further shore up the moments when the exes drop their guard and speak plainly. Unfortunately, it has the opposite effect, so the emotional honesty is diluted.

The characters are mere sketches with the majority of the women drawn as either needy, dramatic, controlling, or all of the above. Gilpin pulls off a minor miracle, managing to elicit some sympathy despite the deck being heavily stacked against her favour. Bibb does her best, even displaying a knack for physical slapstick, but can't overcome Frannie being written as some sort of stunted, petulant child. Nor can her energy compensate for the laboriousness of the film's pacing.

Take Care

Directed by: Liz Tuccillo

Written by: Liz Tuccillo

Starring: Leslie Bibb, Thomas Sadoski, Betty Gilpin, Nadia Dajani, Marin Ireland, Michael Stahl-David