Out of control

The script for "Chaos Theory" must have been wrapped in Kevlar — it's the only way to explain why it wasn't shot down at the pitch meeting.

Consider the premise: Frank Allen (Ryan Reynolds) is an efficiency expert and corporate speaker who organizes his life on index cards, only to find that real life (let's all say it in unison) is not so easy to organize.

One day, he's late by 10 minutes to an important meeting. The movie, in a screwballish way, shows how this hiccup of destiny nearly costs Frank his professional reputation, his best friend (Stuart Townsend) and his marriage (to Emily Mortimer).

Reynolds is a clever comedian who can easily handle the escalating frustrations of a regulated man whose life falls into chaos. He's also a good enough actor to change direction completely when narrative bombshells drop that force the actors to abandon the comedy and proceed straight to melodrama.

But Marcos Siega isn't a good enough director to blend all of the script's mismatched tones, or make "Chaos Theory" more than intermittently entertaining. The tonal problems evidently could not be fixed during an extended stay in the editing room — the movie was shot two years ago, and lands briefly today before making what should have been a nonstop flight to DVD. *

Produced by Frederic Golchan, Erica Westheimer, directed by Marcos Siega, written by Daniel Taplitz, music by Gilad Benamram, distributed by Warner Bros.