A.J. Fikry (Kunal Nayyar), a bookstore owner, lives alone on Alice Island. He turns to alcohol while grieving over the death of his wife. When one of his books gets stolen, he seeks the help of a local cop (David Arquette) to find the thief. He also finds an abandoned young girl, Maya, at his store and decides to take care of her as though she were his daughter. His sister-in-law, Ismay (Christina Hendricks), and her husband, Daniel (Scott Foley), help him to raise her. Meanwhile, he begins a relationship with Amelia (Lucy Hale), a sales rep who lives far away in Providence, Rhode Island.
If the plot synopsis above sounds like three different movies in one, your predictions are correct. The screenplay by Gabrielle Zevin not only bites off more than it could chew, but it combines the subplots in a contrived way that makes the film become increasingly lethargic. It doesn't work as a character study of A.J. Fikry nor as a romance nor as a drama even though it spans years in the life of A.J. You'd think that by the time the film was over, you'd get to know him, but he still remains at a cold distance from the audience. In a novel, which the film is based on, it's easier to get inside a character's head. It takes a skilled, humanist screenwriter who knows how to open the window into a character's heart, mind and soul to accomplish that in a film. That's not accomplished here, so the screenplay fails to breathe life into any of the characters. There are also too many characters. If the plot were more focused and had fewer characters, perhaps there would be room for more emotional depth which is sorely lacking.
The performances fail to enliven the film, but what's most disappointing is that the romance between A.J. and Amelia falls flat more often than not. When it doesn't fall flat, it's cheesy. Then there's the relationship between A.J. and Maya whom he wishes to adopt. There's nothing about A.J. that makes him seem like he would be a good father or even a good boyfriend. His character arc when it comes to grieving over his wife doesn't feel believable or organic, so it's hard to imagine that he'd be truly able to move on to a new romantic relationship. When filmmakers don't treat the characters like human beings, they don't treat the audience that way either which makes it hard to become emotionally invested in the story or characters. That's the systemic problem in this film. At a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry is a painfully dull, hackneyed and undercooked slog.
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