'Moonlight' is seriously dark and amusing

The aptly titled "Serious Moonlight" walks a dangerous line between dark comedy and psycho-drama, but it's a tribute to writer Adrienne Shelley and first-time director Cheryl Hines that, despite the film's flaws, it ultimately pulls off its unlikely tone.

The late Shelley's last film as writer-director was the wonderful "Waitress," in which Hines co-starred. Shelley was murdered before she could see the success of that film, and left behind this script for her next. Her husband, producer Andy Ostroy, asked Hines to direct.

"Moonlight" is a long ways from "Waitress," although the dark threads that ran through that film certainly surface here. At first, it looks like some whacky romantic comedy, but then it settles down for a (too long) battle over a wrecked marriage, before taking more surprising turns.

Louise (Meg Ryan) discovers Ian (Timothy Hutton) has been having an affair with the much younger Sara (Kristen Bell) and is leaving for Paris with her the next day. After bashing him over the head, Louise duct-tapes Ian to a chair and threatens to hold him hostage until he renounces his mistress.

Thus begins much spirited bickering over the vagaries of love and the dangers of relationships. Shelley was very good at writing this kind of stuff, but there's simply too much of it.

Eventually, a burglar (Justin Long) breaks into the house and Louise ends up duct-taped beside Ian. Now they really have something to talk about.

This all could have been done much darker, or much lighter, but Hines stays true to the Shelley's high-wire act, and in the end it pays off. The cast is uniformly fine.

More a stage play than a film, "Serious Moonlight" is at the least seriously interesting, and certainly makes you mourn Shelley's passing even more.