The situations thereof are whacky enough but the humor is a little too obvious and mitigating. There’s no originality in the screenplay either. Clichés abound while cloaked rambunctiousness can only keep you tickled for a brief while.

Peter Bogdanovich’s romantic situational comedy is a blend of the conversational sparkle mastered by Woody Allen, the texture of Wes Anderson’s quirky characterization and a throwback to the Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s. She’s Funny That Way is similar to Bogdanovich’s earlier works, like Noises Off and Paper Moon, in its theatricality.

One of the breeziest romps of the year, She’s Funny That Way marks the big-screen directorial comeback of the Hollywood historian-critic Peter Bogdanovich. Blending his own comic sensibilities with a touch of Ernst Lubitsch, the old-school maestro whose final completed film Cluny Brown (1946) provides the inspiration for a running gag involving squirrels and nuts, this is Bogdanovich’s valentine to the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s and ’40s.

Wilson is repetitive and tiresome, Poots grossly inadequate, Hahn again underused, the dialogues flat and the punch-lines absent.

This film is not your typical romcom and that sets it apart. Watch it to see a contemporary screwball comedy from a master of many.

As Bogdanovich takes us for a carousel trip after 13 years, it is heartening to lay back and let the frothy amusing chaos entertain you.