The Theory of Flight

(New Line)

When a film starring Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter grosses just $71,000, you know something's not right. Branagh is a disturbed artist who, after an attempt to hang-glide off the roof of a downtown bank fails, is sentenced to community service -- babysitting Bonham Carter, a spunky young woman with Lou Gehrig's Disease who wants to have a sexual encounter before she dies. Real-life couple Branagh and Carter play their unfortunate, resilient characters to a T, but the story, which goes from melodramatic to light-hearted to just odd, overshadows their star quality.