Inifinitely Polar Bear (2015) * *

Directed by:  Maya Forbes

Starring:  Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, Ashely Aufderheide, Keir Dullea

The title Infinitely Polar Bear is unique.    I'll give it that.    The movie itself doesn't inspire nearly as much interest.    The actors try.    Mark Ruffalo gives the movie much more dramatic depth than it deserves, but by the end, what really happened?     Not much.  

Written and directed by Maya Forbes, who based the screenplay on her childhood experiences in Boston, Infinitely Polar Bear never really clicks although the elements are there for it to click.    Taking place in the 1970s,  Ruffalo is Cam Stuart, a manic depressive father of two daughters whose estranged wife Maggie (Saldana) wants to earn her Masters degree in New York.    The program takes 18 months to complete, so she asks Cam to move back into their Boston apartment and care for the girls.     If she considered for one second his history of instability, she would realize this is not the ideal move.     But, we have a movie to make, so Cam agrees and Maggie is on her way.     She comes home on weekends at least.

Cam is naturally uneven in his parenting skills.     His behavior fluctuates, which at times endears him to the girls and other times embarrasses them.     Cam isn't keen on taking his prescribed lithium medication and everyone is at the mercy of his moods.     He instead calms himself through "small sips of beer" and cigarettes.    Cam doesn't just smoke, he has a cigarette dangling from his mouth in every other scene.     He smokes so much it becomes a distraction.     Scenes in which he isn't smoking come as a welcome relief.  

The daughters (Wolodarsky and Aufderheide) have a nasty habit of expressing their displeasure by screaming at the top of their lungs at Cam, especially when he embarrasses them by being overly friendly with their neighbors during points when he is experiencing a high.     He insists on carrying one neighbor's groceries.     When she politely declines his offer to help her cook dinner, Cam continues to try and ingratiate himself to this woman who obviously doesn't want his help.     It is testament to Ruffalo's considerable acting acumen and likability that he is able to make Cam watchable.    He is at odds with himself at all times, which is oddly fascinating.     A different actor may have made Cam insufferable.   

Zoe Saldana (she played one of the blue people in Avatar) is given a rather thankless role and does what she can with it.     She is patient and understanding when on screen.    However, she is off screen a lot as the movie focuses on Cam's relationship with his daughters, but I would have liked to have seen more of her experiences in New York.     Maggie instead is just someone who drops in when required by the script.    I did enjoy the scene in which she applies for a prestigious job in Boston and her interviewers ask her questions that would today be outlawed.     

Infinitely Polar Bear took a pat, predictable story about a father learning to reconnect with his family and kept it that way.     It never reaches any emotional arc.    The movie just drifts along without any real reason to connect with it.     There is little reason for us to emotionally invest ourselves in this family, one which goes through the same pains countless others have.