Nickel Palace

"Stealing Time" suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a story about the entertainment industry's underbelly of underappreciated drones and wannabe stars? Is it a heist movie? Or is it what it feels like much of the time -- a calling card to the industry from young, connected filmmakers and several actors?

If the latter is the case, then "Stealing Time" achieves modest success. There is certainly talent on display here, but their work fails to come together into a coherent entertainment. The lead actors are all attractive and charismatic. Just their characters are a drag: A year out of college, no one has achieved instant success, which leaves everyone quite bitter.

So these grads, who have a hard time coping with real life, decide to take a short cut: They plan a bank robbery. The instigator, Alex (Peter Facinelli), an assistant to a Hollywood agent from hell, learns that a brain tumor will cut his life short, so he has little to lose. Those with more at stake include Trevor (Ethan Embry), an actor who blows every audition; Sam (Charlotte Ayanna), who wants to be a social worker; and Casey (Scott Foley), an emotional basket case when he learns of his young son's death.

Director Marc Fusco, who wrote the script with co-producer Michael Garrity, proves better at delineating the ups and downs of young people struggling to achieve their goals than the details of a heist. The bank robbery is never convincing, especially since it features costumes more suitable to a junior high school play than a dangerous holdup.

Major contributions come from Stephen Sheridan's sharp, inventive cinematography and Joey Newman's lively musical score.