The Park Bench

A sweet tale with a smart storytelling device and charming performers, but not much more beyond the cute.

The script plays like something by an English major overstuffed with knowledge of lit but whose real-life experience is drawn largely from movies -- and whose simplistic views on race and class are straight out of the white liberal's "But I mean well..." handbook.

While the two leads are appealing and display an undeniable chemistry, the narrative skimpiness makes their efforts for naught.

Hayden and Perez do their best to generate sweetness and spark, but the obstacles separating these characters are as contrived as the cliches that animate them.