Chasing Summer was one of the films sitting right at the top of my most anticipated list heading into the Sundance Film Festival. Written by and starring renowned stand-up comedian Iliza Shlesinger and directed by Josephine Decker, the ingredients for this kind of comedy to work were absolutely there. Which is why just how bland and generic Chasing Summer turns out to be is quite frankly baffling. What should have been a dream pairing instead plays like a nightmare and easily cements itself as one of the biggest disappointments of the entire festival.

The story centres on Jamie (Iliza Shlesinger), an accomplished disaster relief worker who, after being dumped by her boyfriend, returns to her hometown in Texas to live with her parents (Megan Mullally and Jeff Perry). From there, the film descends into the most uncomfortable midlife crisis imaginable, stretching across a 98 minute cringefest that Chasing Summer ultimately becomes.

The drama inserted throughout is painfully dull and has been seen countless times before, and done far better. There’s the boy toy Colby (Garrett Wareing), who offers Jamie a sense of fun and risk despite being half her age. The nauseating return of a high school romance in the form of Chase (Tom Welling), left unresolved thanks to a cheating rumour. The long running gossip about a teenage pregnancy that has followed Jamie her entire life, supposedly started by her friends. And, to round things off, a recovering drug addict sister, Marissa (Cassidy Freeman), who harbours a deep resentment towards her. It’s everything you’d expect from a small town American teen comedy, but when it’s centred on people in their mid forties, it’s less endearing and more a little bit sad.

There’s a so-called big twist thrown in towards the end that leans into every trope imaginable and can be seen coming from a mile away. As the runtime drags on and the film devolves into a horny kissing marathon between Jamie and Chase, rather than anything remotely relatable or genuinely profound, I couldn’t help but feel that Shlesinger had manufactured this story purely to relive a past summer of her own, with Chasing Summer serving as the only way to do it.

It’s unfortunate that someone as comedically talented as Shlesinger has failed to translate those chops into a feature length film so spectacularly. What begins with the odd sporadic laugh amongst the swings and misses quickly collapses into an eye roll-inducing snoozefest, completely devoid of anything genuinely funny, a bit like searching for water in the Sahara during summer.

Admittedly, the chemistry between Shlesinger and Wareing, at least when they first meet, feels believable and grounded in something resembling reality. But as the narrative starts to unravel, so too does any hint of a convincing romance between the two.

While I undoubtedly had a pretty miserable time with Chasing Summer, I can still see a market where it might thrive. That audience may well be middle aged suburban mums experiencing something similar to what’s depicted on screen, but as we’ve already seen with The Housemaid and It Ends With Us, quality isn’t the defining factor of success. What matters is whether there’s entertainment to be had, and I’m sure that, for some, there will be.