In the Smart family — a roving clan of four who make their living mounting regional theater productions, and whom we first encounter in Ohio in 1989 — Gilbert and Sullivan are typical car-song material. All four Smarts know the lyrics. The protagonist, Les (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), the younger of the two adolescent sons, converses with the ghosts of Noël Coward, Ruth Gordon and Tallulah Bankhead. Les has a habit of walking onstage during performances and taking a place as a bit player in ensemble scenes, even though he isn’t supposed to be there.
That description might give you some sense of “Everything’s Going to Be Great,” a coming-of-age film at once endearing in its specificity and overly previous in its strategies. Directed by Jon S. Baird (“Tetris”) and written by Steven Rogers (“I, Tonya”), whose father worked in regional theater, the film follows the Smarts as they grapple with internal tensions over art, money, identity and religion.
The father, Buddy (Bryan Cranston), whose Broadway dreams never came true, is confident that a successful summer season at a New Jersey theater will propel them to a sturdy gig in Milwaukee. Les, a proud oddball who talks back to a school bully by quoting from “Hair,” is fully committed to Buddy’s vision. Macy (Allison Janney), the matriarch, has more of a pragmatic streak. Derrick (Jack Champion), Les’s older brother, who’s spent years going along with the thespian stuff, just wants to play football and lose his virginity.
By turns heartfelt and, especially in the ghost tête-à-têtes, irksome, the movie is helped substantially by its cast, especially Cranston, who brings a welcome sincerity to a quixotic, potentially cloying character.
Everything’s Going to be Great
Rated R for teenage fumblings, adult infidelity. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters.
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