Matchbox Circus Train

This is essentially a Summer of '42 redux with a few sharper, darker, more preposterous barbs thrown in. The tense melodrama takes place on a resort island in the Great Lakes, where Frank (Christopher Curry), a lonely widower, and his two teenage sons (Jack Carey and Tristan Smith) reside. Frank invites his mainland love interest, Claire (Colette Kilroy), to live with them for the summer. The boys take to her quickly, and life around the house begins to shimmer with a maternal, domestic glow.

Claire, however, has her own aspirations -- she's a lounge singer looking to jump-start to her sagging career, and Frank is in a position to help her. He lands her a gig at the governor's annual banquet; later he revokes the opportunity when he realizes her act is not appropriate, and Claire gets even by shacking up with his elder son. The plot, which hits the requisite points of Greek tragedy, goes downhill after the younger son catches his brother and would-be mom in mid stride and devises a demented course to keep his family together. The acting and the direction are amateurish; Kilroy does occasionally manage a sexually provocative presence. Screens at the Copley Place Thursday at 6:25, 8:10, and 9:50 p.m. and Friday at 11:35 a.m. and 1:55 and 4:10 p.m.

-- Tom Meek

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