A Behanding in Spokane

Martin McDonagh (The Lieutenant of Inishmore) has penned a surprisingly lazy, meandering comedy that could be called an absurdist farce—if it were either funny or philosophical. A one-handed maniac (Christopher Walken) occupies a seedy hotel room and tries to find the body part taken from him 47 years ago. Two petty thieves and a moronic desk clerk stumble into the madness. Neither well-constructed nor engagingly weird, this 90 minutes of non sequiturs, banal quarrels and casually racist chatter leaves you mildly amused but mostly baffled. Prime reason to go, if you have $100 burning a hole in your pocket: Walken’s reliably bizarre line readings.—David Cote