Commandments

Give writer-director Daniel Taplitz credit for wanting to make more than the usual kiss-kiss bang-bang. And then assign him blame for the lumpy tone, curdled whimsy, and banal dialogue of this curious exercise. Aidan Quinn goes hell-for-leather as a modern-day Job who decides to get back at an uncaring God by systematically breaking the 10 big ones, but Courteney Cox struggles with an underwritten role as the sister-in-law he covets. Worse, for a movie with such a big agenda, Commandments feels woefully piddly until it literally goes overboard with a farfetched whale of an ending. Taplitz clearly has ambitions, though, and if the Hollywood gods smile on him, this could make an interesting video footnote someday. C-