Boyd Holbrook, left, and B.J. Novak in Vengeance (Patti Perret/Focus Features)

B.J. Novak wrote for, acted in, and eventually executive produced the U.S. version of The Office, as well as produced the first season of The Mindy Project. Both of these are situation comedies have serious undertones that peek out between the laughter, like foam on waves as they roll into shore. He even wrote The Book with No Pictures, a hilarious children’s picture book that has a serious message about what we choose to read to our children. So, it makes sense that Vengeance would fall in the same vein, and make no mistake, this is a very funny movie, with more than one laugh-out-loud moment. It also is good when it turns serious, but it stumbles when it tries to be profound.

Novak plays Ben Manolowitz, a self-centered New York writer. We meet Ben at a party pontificating with his friend about the ridiculousness of making serious connections with people, and already we see his comeuppance on the horizon. He also has a conversation into Eloise (Issa Rae), who runs a podcasting empire. Ben, ever just behind the trend, wants to start a podcast and pitches her on the idea of traveling the country attempting to bridge the red and blue divide.

That evening he gets a call from Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), brother of Abilene, with whom Ben used to hook up, yet he barely remembers her. Abilene has just OD’d in an oil field in her West Texas hometown, and Ty believes Ben was her boyfriend. On impulse, Ben accepts the invitation to visit her family and decides he will make a podcast about her. He can now talk about opioid abuse, the left behind working class, culture shock, and the whole kit and caboodle that seems to make America the trash fire it is today.

When Vengeance stays on this track, it delivers. Novak uses broad comedy and stereotypes at first (Texas rednecks and urban millennials) and then zeros in on the particulars and humanizes the scenario. Novak is expert at maneuvering fish out of water situations. When prompted to speak at Abilene’s funeral, he states with absolutely certainty, “We know she loved music. We ALL know that,” after just learning that she wanted to be a musician. At a rodeo, he is brought to the center of the arena and asked what he does for a living. He states he’s a writer, which gets mistaken for “rider,” causing him to painstakingly explain what writing is, to which the announcer shouts, “We know what a writer is, you jagoff!”

Ty wants Ben to stay for a particular reason: He doesn’t believe his sister’s death was accidental but that she was murdered, and wants to take revenge. Since Ty thinks Abilene and Ben were seriously dating, he considers Ben family. Ben goes along with this for his podcast, so he inserts and insulates himself into the Shaw family, and all learn, of course, that they have more in common than not. Meanwhile, the time with Abilene’s family and watching videos of her makes Ben realize how self-centered he is.

Then the film takes a hard turn into noir. Ben works out that Abilene may not have actually OD’d, and something does not make sense. Now, he becomes a detective. This is when the movie loses its way, when it decides to be center on what’s wrong with America and modern society. In fact, there is a moment where Novak essentially mirrors Orson Welles’s monologue from The Third Man. Once you realize there is a villain, it’s pretty easy to do the math in regards to whom it is.

Novak swings for the fences but comes up short. That being said, it is an entertaining film with solid performances. Novak’s persona has always been in the Woody Allen/Ben Stiller mode, but with all the neuroses shoved way down inside so the placid exterior is cover for all the anxiety roiling underneath. Ashton Kutcher, as a record producer, is quite good, and it feels like he’s heading in the same direction as Keanu Reeves, aging nicely into solid character work. Eli Bickel almost pockets the film as the youngest member of the Shaw family, the sweetest, most vulnerable of the clan. Unfortunately, the priceless J. Smith-Cameron and Dov Cameron (no relation) are wasted as the mother and eldest daughter of the clan, respectively.

Vengeance is worth a look. It’s funny, entertaining, easy to sit through. It’s just got too much on its mind.