Andre Gregory rehearsed his stage production of Henrik Ibsen’s play for over than a decade. You’d think that would have been long enough to come up with some blocking. But while the actors seldom do anything more strenuous than lean forward, the camerawork for this film version (directed by Jonathan Demme) bounces like a beach ball.

Seventy-year-old Wallace Shawn, Gregory’s longtime collaborator, has the title role. But Shawn’s high-strung twitches and reedy voice make for a mighty incongruous Halvard Solness, who’s supposed to be a domineering, middle-aged man with many people in his thrall. As Hilde, a mysterious and possibly dangerous woman from Halvard’s past, Lisa Joyce punctuates most of her lines with manic giggles.

The film is full of baffling choices, like the EKG machine that beeps for the first 40 minutes, so loud and so maddening that the great words barely register. Mumblecore is not a good look for Ibsen.