'Midnight' a tribute to director

Compared to Adrienne Shelly, the promising director who was murdered after completing her debut film, "Waitress," Meg Ryan needn't elicit much sympathy. But Ryan's career has been sorrowful since her reign as America's Sweetheart in the '90s, and now Shelly is serving as her guardian angel.

With a posthumously produced script and Shelly's friend Cheryl Hines making her directorial debut, Ryan has her most characteristic role in a decade. The marital-showdown comedy "Serious Moonlight" has the gossamer gloss of contrivance, but it's also a labor of love that brings out the best in its stars.

Ryan is Louise, a workaholic attorney who is about to get dumped by her ad-executive husband, Ian (Timothy Hutton, making a welcome comeback of his own). But before he can run off to Paris with a young cookie named Sara (Kristen Bell), Louise confronts him in their country home - with a conk on the head and a truss of duct tape.

The domestic-battle scenario recalls movies like "The War of the Roses," but "Serious Moonlight" has both a daffy and a dark side. Louise is determined to convince Ian that he still loves her, and even while he's tied to a chair, Louise plies him with fresh-baked cookies and a slide show of their courtship.

It's a pleasure to watch Ryan resurrect her trademark persona, a mix of perkiness and pique, as she flounces around the room. But it's shaded with a middle-age desperation that's half real and half chick-flick shtick.

Hutton gives the movie a male rejoinder, loading hard truths about waning passions with some much-needed gravity.

The story goes off track - and steals a page from "The Ref" - with the arrival of a larcenous gardener named Todd (Justin Long). Those scenes are disturbing, not just for their innate violence but for the inadvertent reminder that Shelly was killed by an angry workman. But the subplot is slightly redeemed by a predictable trick ending.

And the formulaic shortcomings of "Serious Moonlight" are redeemed by the glow of a group tribute to a fallen friend.

Produced by Andy Ostroy and Michael Roiff, directed by Cheryl Hines, written by Adrienne Shelly, music by Andrew Hollander, distributed by Magnolia Pictures.