JUMP TOMORROW

1/2

Gentle, whimsical indie comedy with an international cast and European sensibility.

Running time: 97 minutes. Rated PG. Atthe Angelika Film Center, Houston andMercer streets.

IN an era when so many movie comedies rely on toilet humor or callous sadism to pump up the laughter, it’s a relief to come across a film like “Jump Tomorrow.”Quirky and good-natured, it makes the most of an unknown but able and refreshingly international cast. And for a low-budget indie, it looks remarkably good and moves along with real snap. You’d never guess that it’s a first feature for deft writer-director Joel Hopkins and his charismatic star, Tunde Adebimpe.

George (Adebimpe), a shy Nigerian-American banker living in Manhattan, has long been engaged to wed a family friend from Lagos. It’s an arranged marriage, and he’s resigned to go through with it.

Waiting at the airport to pick up his fiancee – who turns out to have arrived in the country already – George meets Alicia (Natalia Verbeke), a spirited Spanish girl who invites him to a party that evening. He also encounters a suicidal Frenchman, Gerard (Hippolyte Girardot), who has just been dumped by the woman he wanted to marry.

Gerard gives George a ride home from the airport, they bond and George takes him to Alicia’s Euro-party in Manhattan.

There’s a lot of erotic tension between George and Alicia (she actually gets him to dance), but also present is Alicia’s English boyfriend, Nathan (Merchant Ivory veteran James Wilby), a crunchy meditation and tai chi fanatic with whom she’s about to move to Canada.

In any case, George is due in Niagara Falls in two days to get married. Of course, Gerard insists on driving George all the way in his absurd Citroen, and on the way up, they see Alicia and Nathan hitchhiking, and give them a lift. All four end up staying with Alicia’s mom in a small town in upstate New York.

It’s there that George (who has been learning Spanish and watching telenovelas) finally begins to emerge from the shell of his shyness.

What happens next – including the climax in a Niagara church – is predictable and strongly reminiscent of any number of mainstream romantic comedies. And yet Adebimpe’s charm and presence in the lead role is almost enough to make you not mind.

It’s more of a shame that Alicia’s character is so undeveloped. It’s hard to see why George would prefer her to his very attractive Nigerian fiancee (Abiola Wendy Abrams).

In addition, some of the ethnic stereotyping is tiresome: The English boyfriend is a prig, while the Spanish are passionate, musical and able to enliven even the vitality of less warm-blooded folk.