by JOANNE LATIMER

You can file this film alongside American Beauty, Happiness and The Shape of Objects, under the heading "numbing tragedies." The United States of Leland is full of messed-up neighbours with an amplified notion of their own suffering. Their self-conscious detachment is almost unbearable, as they go through the motions of everyday life. While the film is engrossing, its bleak message doesn't resonate for long because we've heard it before: society gets the homicidal sociopaths it deserves and there's plenty of blame to spread around. We get it.

Director Matthew Ryan Hoge lets us puzzle over Leland, the anti-hero who commits an inexplicable crime. Leland (Ryan Gosling), of course, is a neglected rich kid - a popular breeding ground for amoral misfits. Leland has a famous yet absentee father, a novelist (Kevin Spacey), and a drug-addicted girlfriend (Jena Malone, from Bastard Out of Carolina). Headed by Martin Donovan (The Opposite of Sex), the girlfriend's family includes a perfectly behaved sister (Michelle Williams), her devoted boyfriend (Chris Klein of the American Pie movies) and a mentally deficient brother.

Something unspeakable happens and Leland lands in jail, piquing the curiosity of a prison teacher (Don Cheadle), who sees Leland as fodder for a good book. Cheadle becomes our "But Why?" guy, trying to get into Leland's head. Nothing is resolved, really, except for our suspicion that Cheadle's book about Leland would be more satisfying than the film.

"The United States of Leland was not intended to be a brooding, alienating, gritty art film. It deals with dark subject matter, but it's not meant to be a dark film," Hoge declares in the press notes. Well, too bad. It is. Even though Hoge filmed almost everything - even prison scenes - in bright sunlight, he didn't produce a "tragedy saturated with hope," as he stated. All that sunlight leaves a nasty afterburn and flaunts the film's visual manipulations. If you're in the mood to be sucker punched, hell, this film's for you.

The United States of Leland opens Friday, April 9

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