In 2003, Lucky McKee's May hit the horror scene, presenting a twisted and darkly funny spin on the Frankenstein story that elevated the genre to a real art form. Roman is meant to be a companion piece to May, and based on its premise alone, it's certainly a step in the right direction. But whereas McKee's debut feature was a bizarre little masterpiece, Roman feels lazy and strangely self-indulgent at times.

In an interesting role reversal, May star Angela Bettis serves as the director of Roman, while McKee himself stars as the titular character. Roman is your classic loner, a guy living a solitary existence in which the only people he ever talks to are co-workers who like poking fun at him. With no TV set or social life to speak of, Roman spends his afternoons watching an attractive neighbor (Kristen Bell) get her mail, too shy to talk to her but yearning to be noticed nevertheless.

Surprisingly, the mystery girl strikes up a conversation with our hero one day, although a couple of beers in his apartment leads to a tragic event that convinces Roman he's doomed to live life solo. That is, until another neighbor woman named Eva (Nectar Rose) starts to chat up Roman, leaving him torn between trying to pursue a stable relationship once and for all -- or risk having Eva end up like the decomposing corpse in his bathtub.

On paper, Roman sounds just about perfect. McKee (who also wrote the film's script) has the right idea in mind to create essentially a male version of May, telling a similar story about a lonely soul fighting  inner demons in a quest to be "normal." But while May had a much stranger, more outlandish side to it that straddled the line separating horror and comedy, Roman takes a more subdued approach that ends up hurting the flick more than helping it. This is a more dialogue-driven tale, which is perfectly fine, except there's little variety in terms of what actually happens over the course of the movie.

Roman is about 90 minutes of awkward conversations featuring Roman skulking around his apartment -- and that's it. The film doesn't come across so much as the emotionally intense story of a man tortured by his own murderous urges as it does a rather boring movie about some guy who drinks a ton of beer and talks to himself a lot. Roman is low-key to a fault, flying so much under the radar viewers might not even care once something actually happens in the movie.

Part of the reason I felt so disconnected with Roman is Lucky McKee's performance. The guy has the sympathetic sadsack look down pat, but his actual turn as Roman feels lifeless. It's strange that McKee, a talented filmmaker who knows his way around a script, would cook up such a complex character and yet deliver a portrayal about as energetic as a clinically depressed Napoleon Dynamite. A good portion of the film is spent immersed in his isolated world, but he's not fleshed-out or compelling enough to invest in emotionally.

However, Roman does pick up when the two key female characters enter the picture, plunging the story into a sense of unease it unfortunately can't carry through in the rest of the movie. Bell's appearance is a brief one but serves as a convincing catalyst to Roman's inner dilemma. Rose injects a good dosage of life and personality into her intriguing role, that of a bouncy young woman who's something of an outcast due to her fascination with death and who sees Roman as a potential kindred spirit. She carries her scenes with McKee like a trooper, keeping one's interest in the story despite McKee's lackluster performance. 

I'm filing Roman under the category of "good movies gone bad." It's not doomed from the start, as the story is solid and the themes undoubtedly intriguing. But thanks to Angela Bettis's bland, "point and shoot" directing style and McKee's disappointing turn, the only real corpses in Roman are those viewers who die of boredom.

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment; not rated by MPAA.)