MOVIE REVIEW : A Good Premise Gets Lost in ‘Weekend’

The budget for Gregory Neri’s “A Weekend With Barbara Und Ingrid� is so micro--$59,313, according to the press kit--that knocking it makes one feel like a clomping Godzilla. But despite an intriguing premise, this maundering malaise of a comedy is a chore to sit through (clomp). The pacing is slack (clomp, clomp), the acting doodly ( clomp ) and--well, why go on?

It’s about a failed L.A. poet (Jim Metzler) who writes bird cage manuals and whose girlfriend walks out on him just in time for Labor Day weekend. He wants to wall himself in with his misery but he’s visited by two German performance artists, Barbara (Anna Katarina) und Ingrid (Michelle Holmes), who claim they hooked up with his former flame overseas. They camp out in his pad and before long we’re inundated with life lessons and free-spirited falderal. (It plays Saturday and Sunday matinees at the Laemmle Sunset 5.) Metzler, who was excellent in “One False Move� a few years back, tries to excavate the comedy from his role and, in a bit part as a Jerry Lewis-like telethon host--he’s called Jerzy Louis here-- performance artist John Fleck has some tart moments of (very) low comedy.

‘A Weekend With Barbara und Ingrid’

Jim Metzler: Danny

Anna Katarina: Barbara

Michelle Holmes: Ingrid

Bob Cady: Jack

A Rabbit in the Moon Film. Director Gregory Neri. Producer Gregory Neri. Executive producer Steven Lovy. Screenplay by Gregory Neri. Cinematographer Stephen Timberlake. Editor David Notowitz. Music Steven Lovy and Tim Kelly. Production design Robert Lovy. Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes.

Times rated Family. It includes very brief partial male nudity.