Meeting Spencer

It's pithy and funny in that continuous smile kind of way that you don't notice until you're half way through it.

Brit helmer Malcolm Mowbray's film assumes the constrictions of a stagebound farce, taking place on a single set in real time, and swept along in magisterially broad strokes by Jeffrey Tambor's playfully theatrical perf.

Though it's a big thrill that the world's finest character actor has his very own lead role, one wishes there were more meat on the elegant bones of Meeting Spencer to justify his cheerfully offhand wit.

Isn't quite savvy enough to compete with the slyest entries in that genre or madcap enough to run with the zaniest.

The film feels more stale than timeless. Ditto the movie's rapid-fire dialogue, a stream of self-conscious patter that largely misses its targets and repeatedly takes the zing out of Tambor's zesty line readings.

At best a sporadically amusing sketchbook of theater types.

A lame, tedious comedy.