MOVIE REVIEW

Personalities clash and cultural worlds collide in a Manhattan setting, but Jennifer Westfeldt's comedy cleans up the mess in one tidy script.

By Jan Stuart, Newsday

Having just been fired by his analyst of 12 years, the eponymous 33-year-old neurotic played by Chris Messina stumbles downtown on New York City's Broadway in a stupor, passing Fairway and then Zabar's. Anyone who's done any time on the Upper West Side knows they've got their markets turned around, a blooper that sums up the always-just-a-bit-off photo-realism of this assertively Manhattan-centric "divorce comedy."

Until he meets and quickly marries the daffy-but-sincere health club sales clerk Abby (Jennifer Westfeldt), Messina's Ira dwells in a self-contained universe facilitated by Jewish professionals and dominated by his uptight, malcontent analyst parents (Judith Light and Robert Klein).

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It's the Upper West Side as Upper West Bank, a quaint and airless ethnic cocoon where the only talking person of color is a subway mugger.

But blithe spirit Abby opens up Ira and his folks to new possibilities, abetted by her fun-loving, bohemian mom and dad (Frances Conroy and Fred Willard).

Just when happiness finds Ira, skeletons come tumbling out of Abby's closet in the form of two ex-husbands.

Written by Westfeldt (of "Kissing Jessica Stein" semi-fame), this round-robin of marital malaise has a lot more integrity than one might anticipate from its meet-cute beginnings. Whether you buy into this hardworking confection depends on how much you fall for its screenwriter-star, who combines the perky insouciance of Jennifer Aniston with the flake-head pixieness of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show's" Georgia Engel. With all that irrepressible energy bouncing off the screen, Klein's flat-tire depressive always comes as a welcome relief. Robert Cary directs.

"Ira & Abby." MPAA rating: R for language and some sexual content. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes. In selected theaters.