Reckoning with youth is terrain of 'XX/XY'

Mark Ruffalo, the talented actor best known for "You Can Count on Me," struts through the indie relationship drama "XX/XY" with the gleeful, in-the-moment smile of a guy who knows he's cute. It's the right choice for playing Coles, a Peter Pan type who cheerfully announces, "I'm never going to grow up." Easy for him to say; less easy for the women in his life — Sam (Maya Stange), Thea (Kathleen Robertson) and Claire (Petra Wright) — to deal with.

"XX/XY" doesn't start off well; the scenes feel too artily composed, the editing feels sudden and random, and all the actors but Ruffalo seem flat, moving through carefully choreographed bits of business (cigarettes are smoked, food elaborately eaten) with an actor-y precision. And though Ruffalo has a vibrancy that jumps off the screen, his college-age character feels a little too close to the feckless brother he played in "You Can Count on Me," and the awkward three-way relationship he shares with Sam and Thea is less than compelling.

Then the movie jumps ahead 10 years, and suddenly things get interesting — the characters are now grown-ups, and the performances (and the editing) calm down. Coles is now a failed filmmaker (there's a wonderful scene in a coffeehouse, where a college kid recognizes Coles, criticizes his film, and demands a refund) who works in advertising and lives in an impeccably decorated, white-on-white apartment with his elegant girlfriend, Claire. Reuniting unexpectedly with Sam and Thea, Coles must make some grown-up decisions.

Ruffalo, in the second half of the film, smooths down the youthful goofiness he's shown earlier; there's an almost apologetic sadness to him, as he stares at the women he doesn't understand. And Wright, as Claire, emerges as the heart of the movie. She's got a speech near the end that's beautifully delivered, yanking "XX/XY" into the dangerous territory of the heart.

Writer/director Austin Chick, in his debut, sometimes gets a little stuck on authentic detail (there's a lot of toothbrushing in this movie), but he understands how his characters talk, and how they live.

Though the chemistry's a little off in "XX/XY" (whose title screams out for a change — it sounds like a lab experiment), Ruffalo and Wright make it a journey worth taking.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com