IN California, Milo (Bill Hader) writes: “To whom it may concern, goodbye” on the back of an envelope then slits his wrist in the bath.

Even at suicide, Milo, besides being gay, is ineffective. His twin sister Maggie (Kristen Wiig) brings him to New York to recover. They have not contacted each other for a decade. He contacts bookshop owner Rich (Ty Burrell) who, when Milo was 15, seduced him.

Maggie and affable Lance (Luke Wilson) are trying unsuccessfully to start a family. Maggie fills in the waiting time taking self-improvement courses, currently scuba diving under the tutelage of an Australian dive-master unfazed by conventional student-teacher relationship principles.

The main structural member of writer/director Craig Johnson’s plot is the interaction between the twins. It’s not good. Neither is it so bad as to explain why they’ve been so long without contact. Milo is pestering Rich, now going straight and fathering a son now in his teens, to renew their relationship. Maggie’s confession of serial infidelities when Lance finds her contraceptive pills destroys the marriage.

The pace at which this moves is relatively glacial, unblessed by emotional or behavioural elements that reach out to embrace filmgoers. Wiig and Hader have a shared background in network TV comedy. Wiig’s filmography includes many very funny roles. I hoped to see them here. Alas, no.

At Palace Electric