The Alarmist

One scene in first-time director Evan Dunsky's largely forgettable adaptation of Keith Reddin's Off Broadway play finds Heinrich Grigoris (Stanley Tucci) kicking in the door of a house where he's just installed a security system, to show that it works. The faked break-in builds business and also sets the tone for this blandly black comedy, which indulges in sirens and whistles that generally signify nothing.

Tucci is suitably reptilian in a lovable way, as the owner of a shady home-security company who tries to seduce his idealistic, naive young salesman Tommy (an unctuous David Arquette) into some of his more underhanded dealings. Tommy is ambitious but honest, though he's not above celebrating a sale to his first customer, Gale (Kate Capshaw), by sleeping with her. Gale's suspicions of Heinrich add some tension -- which is heightened by a double murder and an elderly man whose notion of home security is an AK-47. The film pushes on such hot-button subjects as middle-class paranoia, younger man/older woman romance, and the ethics of greed, but like the door-kicking incident, it's all a false alarm. At the Cable Car Cinema.

-- Peter Keough