Are You Here

When Zach Galifianakis shaves his beard in Are You Here, it’s meant — to some extent — to drill home his effort to expand his range as an actor.

Unfortunately, the lack of subtlety in such a gesture is symptomatic of this muddled, character-driven comedy about mental illness that marks the directorial debut of “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner.

Steve (Owen Wilson) is a fledgling TV weatherman in Annapolis who’s more concerned with smoking weed and getting girls than in churning out an accurate forecast. Galifianakis plays his friend Ben, whose mix of paranoia and bipolar traits leads to a severe dependence on Steve’s party-hearty ways.

Following the sudden death of Ben’s father, however, the duo takes a road trip to Pennsylvania, where the surprising result has Ben inheriting the family farm. This troubles Ben’s overbearing sister, Terri (Amy Poehler), who already has distanced herself from Steve and from her father’s much-younger second wife (Laura Ramsey), and decides to challenge the will out of frustration over the family’s dysfunction.

Making matters worse, Steve develops an attraction to the young widow, and Ben presents an ill-conceived idea for the family land and business focused on utopian ideals and communal living.

The film struggles to find a consistent tone between its attempts at broad stoner comedy, fractured family quirks and a more serious examination of mental illness. Despite some clever dialogue, Weiner’s script can’t harness those disparate ideas into a cohesive and emotionally satisfying whole.

Steve, in particular, is more annoying than endearing, always butting in with comments such as, “you’re wasting an awful lot of though on something that’s not gonna get you high or laid.” The decision to tell the story from his point of view is ill-conceived, and yields only some half-hearted jabs at television news.

Ben’s eccentricities lack charm, and his bumbling antics wear thin after a while. Plus, Poehler is unfortunately squandered in a one-note change-of-pace supporting role. By the end, there’s nobody left to root for.

Besides the cryptic title, the result is not exactly an insightful or profound look at family friction and arrested development, and remains uneven its in efforts to balance humor and poignancy.

Rated R, 112 minutes.