The cast of IT’S A DISASTER (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

It’s a Disaster is structured around a clever conceit: tensions at a couples’ brunch are pushed past the breaking point when apocalyptic events prevent anyone from leaving. It’s Buñuel by way of Apatow and not half bad, particularly in the film’s later part, when ideas and characters are liberated from the constraints of reason. In its finest moments, the dark comedy has a tart satirical bite as trenchant dialogue and canny performances come together into something that is briefly greater than the sum of its parts.

Our entry to this party comes through the somewhat mismatched visages of Julia Stiles and David Cross, playing a couple on a third, unusually fateful date. By turns thoughtful, funny, and morose, Stiles is altogether lovely, a breath of fresh air in a film that has a tendency to turn claustrophobic. Cross is assigned the role of straight man, which he plays effectively if not memorably. It’s only late in the film that he gets to stretch his comic muscles, and once he does, you wish he had been given the chance earlier.

Together, they flirt and argue their way through a series of increasingly large conflicts without ever really settling into a believable rhythm. They and their friends suffer from the endemic horror movie problem: reacting in irrational ways to situations that would otherwise be easily solvable. The situations here are more emotional than supernatural (save for a rather clever episode with some chronically late friends), but their decisions feel no less artificial.

Part of the problem is the sheer number of people bouncing around on screen. Dialogue and narrative overlaps in a fashion that is never quite Altman-esque. The different couples break apart and come back together in a kind of musical chairs, and the carnival ride nature of their plight, underscored by classical music, punctuates the proceedings with a morbid sense of wit. It’s fun but labored, making you wish the film wasn’t trying so hard.

This would all be fine enough if the payoff were a little bit larger or more generously doled out. But for the most part, the jokes froth and fizzle but fail to sting. Most of the best lines are delivered by Stiles, who has an easy way with a joke that takes it out of the capital letters the script feels written in. Presented with the inevitability of her death, she wails, “I never even watched The Wire!” One sympathizes.

Watching It’s a Disaster is rather like spending time with a friend you always wished you saw more often, and when you do, you remember why you don’t. Which also seems to be the way the characters feel about each other. Given the sheer number of tensions and exploding secrets, you begin to wonder how they got along for so long before this. The explanation only comes towards the end as circumstances force the abandonment of long-standing grudges and they seem briefly like actual people, capable of interacting with each other in rational ways.

Then the film ends, going out on a clever note that leaves you wanting more. Neither a bang nor a whimper, just a single chuckle before everything goes black.