50-year-old Jake Klein listens to 40-year-old Jake (both played by Elias Koteas) in “Jake Squared.”

I realize how hard it is for an independent filmmaker to attract big-name actors to his or her cast – which is why I hate seeing big-time performances go to waste because a plot lacks the structure to contain them.

Sadly, that is what happens in Jake Squared, which I screened at the Phoenix Film Festival.

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It’s fine for an artist to use his or her medium, in this case film, to examine many sides of a question. But I think it’s redundant to make that movie about a filmmaker trying to work through his problems by making a movie. That’s the conceit of Jake Squared.

The problem is that writer/director Howard Goldberg lacks a clear answer to his question. It’s hard drive a narrative without a destination. Time-shifting, non-seqeuntial plots have been popular since Memento (2000); in an original twist, Goldberg gives us a mashup in which versions of the main characters at different ages all come together and bicker in, of all settings, a round-the-clock Hollywood party.

(Hey, I guess there are only so many ways you can make a Greek chorus out bikini girls in a hot tub. Seriously, they’re named Venus, Aphrodite and Persephone, according to IMDB.)

It’s all rather confusing – and exacerbated by the fact that two of the female characters, played by different actresses at different ages, have similar names: Joanne and Jocelyn.

Without any clear answers, the film ends with two versions of the 50-year-old main character arguing between themselves about their opposing conclusions.

What a Waste

There are some great performances bouncing around in the moving collage that is Jake Squared. They just don’t add up to much.

The setup is that 50-year-old filmmaker Jake Klein, divorced with two kids, is trying to figure out why he hasn’t found the love of his life and whether he should “settle” with one of four women from different stages in his life.

Phenomenal Canadian actor Elias Koteas (Combat Hospital, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) plays Jake at ages 30, 40 and 50 – earning himself the Phoenix Film Festival’s 2014 Special Achievement in Acting award.

Kevin Railsback (Heart of Dixie) plays Jake at 17. Mike Vogel (Cloverfield) is the better-looking actor Jake casts to play his 20-something self. Vogel does a great job with a character who provides some comic relief while serving two main functions: being a sounding board for his elder self and steering the action back to the hot tub. Railsback brings a sincere earnestness to teenage Jake.

Koteas negotiates his three Jakes masterfully, often playing the different ages interacting in the same scene. (It’s almost akin to Tatiana Maslany playing eight clones on BBC America’s Orphan Black, though Maslany sometimes has to go a step further by portraying one clone pretending to be another.)

Koteas’ 50-year-old Jake oozes confusion, which manifests itself in various scenes as anger, exasperation or introspection. This doesn’t require much makeup; 50-year-old Jake’s receding hairline is covered by 40-year-old Jake’s bandana and 30-year-old Jake’s Fedora. Still, the latter Jake looked older than 30.

But Wait, There’s More!

There are bigger-name performers than Koteas in the film – portraying the various women in his life.

Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) plays the elder version of Joanne, who, as played by Liana Liberato (Stuck in Love, Erased), is Jake’s teen crush. While Seymour quietly voices the wisdom of a lifetime, Liberato displays a smoldering sincerity in her depiction of teenage love at first sight.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Weeds) portrays Sheryl, Jake’s present-day long-distance girlfriend. Living in Chicago while Jake is in Los Angeles offers Jake another way to avoid commitment, and Sheryl suffers accordingly. One gets a sense about halfway through the film that she won’t put up with it much longer.

Virginia Madsen (Sideways) plays Jake’s longtime best friend, Beth, though Kelly Pendygraft (Elizabethtown) has a few scenes as younger Beth. Madsen’s character is a rare voice of reason in the first part of the movie but eventually is drawn into Jake’s craziness. Pendygraft’s version is so naive that it’s hard to believe she’s playing the same character.

Jake Squared includes some great work by up-and-coming actors. In addition to Liberato and Railsback, Goldberg gets a fantastic performance from Gia Mantegna (daughter of actor Joe Mantegna) as Jake’s daughter, Sarah. Lithe with soulful brown eyes, the 23-year-old plays 16 convincingly. Sarah has similar, somewhat parallel relationships with actual Jake and Vogel’s character, whom she dubs “Fake Jake.” I’m just speculating here, but perhaps the idea is that to teenagers, all adults are pretty much alike.

Of course, the set of women in Jake’s life wouldn’t be complete with out his mother, who returns from the grave along with his father and grandfather. While the old men mainly kvetch, the mother appears younger – in her 40s, perhaps – and actually listens to Jake before offering her 2 cents.

The actress, Meredith Salinger, has a 30-year list of credits. Despite the passage of time, I remembered her as the sexy film critic who had an affair with Dawson in one of the later seasons of Dawson’s Creek. (Not sure what that says about me.) There is a sparkling quality about her eyes, different from Mantegna’s but almost as arresting.

The soundtrack of Jake Squared – geared toward a backyard pool party – is an interesting mix of Afro-Caribbean beats. There are a couple of odd scenes in which characters sing solos with lyrics crafted around the beat. I found one of them, featuring Mantegna, particularly haunting and memorable.

Bottom line: Jake Squared is a mess, yet some top-notch acting kept me in the theater ’til the end. But if I hadn’t already been there …

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Stuart J. Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

Tags: Dawson’s Creek, Elias Koteas, Gia Mantegna, Howard Goldberg, Jake Squared, Jane Seymour, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Pendygraft, Kevin Railsback, Liana Liberato, Meredith Salinger, Mike Vogel, Virginia Madsen