Gay comedies are easily separated into three categories within the larger category of Harmless Fluff: the well-done (Trick), the mediocre (All Over the Guy), and the flat and bland. The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green falls into the latter category, in more ways than one. As adapted to the screen by David Vernon, Eric Orner's popular comic strip may be fine for Sunday morning browsing, but that does not necessarily translate into a good movie.

As the film opens, Ethan (played by Daniel Letterle from Camp) is a young gay man who, like so many in Los Angeles, is looking for love but not finding it. Instead, he finds his way from one absurd romantic situation to another. The audience is told by subtitles, however, not to feel too bad for him, because, "it's his own damn fault." Ethan, it seems, has never been comfortable in a relationship, never content.

"I'm not looking for Tom of Finland," he says. He simply wants someone butcher than he, "but not as masculine as Chastity Bono."

One day, while reading in the park, he meets Kyle (Diego Serrano) a baseball player who has just come out, and poof, it's love. Four months pass and Ethan finds himself in a dilemma. His former boyfriend Leo (David Monahan, Dawson's Creek), who owns the house Ethan resides in, decides to sell which would leave Ethan homeless. Even worse, it might mess up the flow of his relationship with the semi-closeted Kyle.

To keep his life from falling apart, Ethan devises a plan. With the help of a 19 year-old real estate agent's assistant named Punch (Dean Shelton), he plots to guarantee that the house does not sell. Complicating matters, Punch develops romantic aspirations for Ethan and acts on them forcefully. Ethan, who is perpetually attracted to anything male that shows interest in him, can't help but be charmed by the young man's self-described petulance.

Before long, Ethan dumps Kyle, Leo meets and is proposed to by a Log Cabin Republican (Scott Atkinson), and Ethan's feelings for Leo begin to resurface, all leading up to a tangled, would-be farcical confrontation that also involves all of Ethan's oddball friends.

All of this transpires in a scant 87 minutes!

Interspersed throughout the film are flashbacks attempting to add texture and depth, yet doing little but making one shrug with indifference. The sole standout among these is an animated sequence by Orner himself describing the tortured life of Punch's boss, real estate agent Sunny Deal (Rebecca Lowman).

The film's undoing might be the result of its being based on a comic strip. It feels like a Sunday morning comic--breezy in a forgetful, average way, as if there is something missing. Even the dialogue feels as if it were in bubbles hanging alongside the heads of the actors. Seeing it is the film equivalent of coming away from a dinner table still hungry.

The performances director George Bamber gets from his cast are, for the most part, cartoon-ish and stereotypical, with swishy attitudes, feminine swaggers, and sexual obsessions a la porn and internet dating sites. Most notably in this silly regard are the Hat Sisters, as played by veteran character actors Joel Brooks and Richard Riehle, who flit around in elaborate gowns and extravagant hats one might only see at the Kentucky Derby. Both actors are too good for this.

Many performances are also stage-y, and at times the actors seem to think they need to use overly dramatic hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate what they are feeling.

This campy style might have worked if the entire film was a little more ridiculous, but a couple of characters (notably Leo and Ethan's roommate Charlotte) feel like genuine people, and there are some attempts at deep conversation. The viewer is left feeling as though the screenplay can't decide which type of film it wants to be.

The lead character of Ethan is, at first, charming. Letterle is adorable, and portrays him with a boyish playfulness that does indeed make one smile. Soon, however, the character becomes irritating in his stupidity. I didn't care what happened to him because he hadn't created enough of a sympathetic character, instead relying on cute expressions and frantic gesticulation. By the end of the film, it's hard to root for him at all.

Of the other performances, the best come from the supporting characters. Meredith Baxter (Family Ties) does a nice job as Ethan's liberal mother, who plans gay weddings (though, she does something at the end of the movie that seems completely out of character), and Monahan's Leo is a breath of fresh air around the other more flamboyant gay characters.

The best performance in the film, though, comes not from one of the men, but from Shanola Hampton who plays Ethan's lesbian roommate, Charlotte. Every time she is on screen, she anchors the scene, bringing to it a sorely lacking reality. It feels as if she is in a completely different film, a much better one. Indeed, I wanted more of Charlotte. She's genuine and is leagues above the material.

Ultimately, Ethan Green suffers in comparison to other lighter offerings in gay cinema such as The Broken Hearts Club or Mambo Italiano. It lacks those films' heart or direction.

In the end, a weekly six panels of colorful, vibrant story telling are quite sufficient to portray Ethan Green's life since the character, unfortunately, seems unequal to the task of carrying a feature-length film.

The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green opens in Los Angeles on June 16th and plays at Frameline's San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival on June 23 at 8:30 pm.

Get more info at EthanGreen-TheMovie.com