Producers: Fred Bernstein, Billy Crystal, Dominique Telson, Alan Zweibel and Tiffany Haddish   Director: Billy Crystal   Screenplay: Billy Crystal and Alan Zweibel   Cast: Billy Crystal, Tiffany Haddish, Penn Badgley, Laura Benanti, Louisa Krause, Anna Deavere Smith, Andrew Durand, Matthew Broussard, Alex Brightman, Max Gordon Moore, Audrey Hsieh, Nyambi Nyambi, Sharon Stone, Kevin Kline, Barry Levinson and Bob Costas    Distributor: Stage 6 Films

Grade: C+

Mixing the serious with the sweet, Billy Crystal and Alan Zweibel have come up with an oddity, an unabashedly feel-good story about the onset of dementia.  “Here Today” will entertain some viewers—particularly in the older age group—but probably strike others as hopelessly old-fashioned and manipulative.  (The script is based on Zweibel’s short story “The Prize.”) 

The title refers, of course, to memory, which veteran comedy writer Charlie Burnz (Crystal) is losing bit by bit.  A widower with two grown children and a loving granddaughter, he has a job on the staff of a cable TV show similar to “Saturday Night Live” (for which, of course, Zweibel wrote).

Burnz’s worsening condition has led him, following the advice of his doctor (Anna Deavere Smith), to conduct his life in repetitive patterns to avoid becoming confused.  (He obsessively walks to work, for instance, by the same route every day, using a stop sign to tell him when to turn left.)  He is also suffering uncomfortable flashbacks to past events—most notably the night when he was notified of the death of his beloved wife Carrie (Louisa Krause) in an auto accident, just after they’d had a fight about his work taking precedence over his family obligations. 

Charlie feels guilty about having neglected his wife and kids while Carrie was alive, which perhaps explains his absolute devotion to his granddaughter Lindsay (Audrey Hsieh).  But Lindsay’s starchy mom Francine (Laura Benanti) has never forgiven him, though his architect son Rex (Penn Badgley) is supportive.

So is his boss at the TV show, despite some of the other writers’ belief that he’s a dinosaur.  But his salvation comes from a cutesy meet with Emma Payge (Tiffany Haddish), a busker-like singer who’s won lunch with him in a charity auction.  (Actually, she stole the prize from her cheating boyfriend, and admits she doesn’t know who Burnz is.)  She orders a seafood salad that leads to her allergies kicking in (a scene that goes for big yucks but is way overdone), and he not only shepherds her to the hospital but pays the bill.

Emma’s insistence on paying him back leads to their friendship, which of course includes her recognition of his condition and insistence on helping him.  It’s a strictly platonic relationship, punctuated by scenes that either aim for vaudeville-style laughs (like Charlie’s one-liners when they tour Madame Tussaud’s’ waxworks), or strive for poignancy (as when he later forgets that they’d gone there). 

There are also some plot turns that are sad miscalculations.  One has to do with Darrell (Andrew Duran), a shy, gawky colleague at the TV show whom Charlie mentors, and another with a second writer-performer there whose wayward vocal inflections literally drive Burnz nuts.  But the worst is a would-be showstopper at Lindsay’s bat-mitzvah, where Emma livens things up with her supposedly crowd-pleasing delivery of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.” It’s meant to get your toe tapping, but is more likely to get your eyes rolling.

There’s also a tribute celebration for Charlie featuring cameos by Barry Levinson, Sharon Stone, Kevin Kline and Bob Costas in which his forgetfulness is taken by most of the audience as a gag but by Emma, sitting among them, as painful proof of his waning mental powers.  It’s not staged dexterously enough to work.  But rest assured that things resolve themselves in a bittersweet finale with the family all together again, and Emma now an integral part of it.

The movie could certainly use more verve.  Crystal’s direction is stodgy, pausing to allow each “moving” moment to draw a sniffle and every “zinger” to land before pushing on; Kent Beyda’s overly permissive editing contributes to the malaise.  It also looks barely a cut above ordinary, with Andrew Jackness’ production design and Vanja Černjul’s cinematography pretty basic. Charlie Rosen’s score isn’t appreciably better.

Of course Crystal uses every trick in his thick playbook to make Charlie sympathetic, and largely succeeds, and he and Haddish have an easygoing rapport, though after the opening reels her natural exuberance melts into a sort of generalized niceness.  Of the supporting cast only Benanti and Hsieh stand out, the former for her stiffness and the latter for her ebullience.

As a sideline, one might note that Crystal’s character in “When Harry Met Sally” was called Harry Burns, and maybe Charlie’s surname here was chosen as a homage.  But while “Harry” has proven to have staying power, “Here Today” will probably be gone tomorrow.