The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Poor casting is the first misstep in this atonal adaptation of novelist Michael Chabon’s acclaimed 1988 debut. Bland, dour Jon Foster robotically plays a preppy gangster’s son; fey, creepy Peter Sarsgaard perplexes as a charismatic tough guy; and stunning beauty Sienna Miller is supposedly attracted to both of them. The underwritten script doesn’t help, reducing rich characters to shorthand tics. Thurber fared better with his broad comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004). The mysteries of drama, though, prove far more elusive.