Jump Tomorrow (2001)

'JUMP' CUT James Wilby and Natalia Verbeke in the cliched ''Jump Tomorrow''

There's a certain breed of annoying indie movie in which a character's shyness is portrayed in a manner so coy that it becomes a reverse form of exhibitionism. Jump Tomorrow is that kind of movie. It's about a stammering nice guy named George (Tunde Adebimpe), who is stoic to the point of robotic monotony in his crisp gray yuppie suit and somber-looking horn-rims. (Are we meant to find it novel that he's an ultra-apologetic nerd who also happens to be a physically imposing black man?)

Three days away from joining in an arranged marriage that's been set up by his Nigerian relatives, George is miserable at the prospect. The movie places him in cautious rebellion against his plight by dropping him into a scenario as predictable as anything out of a bad Sandra Bullock comedy. In the airport, George meets Alicia (Natalia Verbeke), a Spanish girl with alluring dimples who nicknames him ''Jorge,'' and they proceed to draw close through a series of chance meetings that seem not so much coincidental as diagrammed. The whole movie is diagrammed. It's a just-add-water trifle.