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“Being Frank” isn’t very amusing, which normally would be the most damning thing one might say about an ostensible comedy. But that really isn’t the worst thing about it. There is something ineffably creepy about this contrived and mirthless farce about a demanding family man whose rebellious son discovers his dad has secretly maintained a second family in a nearby town for some 18 years. It’s a premise that could have been played for heavy drama, or even as a horror movie. In this case, however, director Miranda Bailey and writer Glen Lakin strain mightily for laughs without much success, and wind up treating the son’s discovery of his father’s deception, and their subsequent efforts to sustain it, as a bonding experience for them.

Jim Gaffigan plays Frank, the bigamist dad, who exploits his position as CEO of his family-owned ketchup business to take frequent and lengthy “business trips” — to Japan,...

Miranda Bailey’s narrative directorial debut “Being Frank” is a comedy about male hypocrisy set in 1992 that dives into many intriguing ideas and issues and gives us a lot to consider. This is commendable — given that many commercial comedies give us nothing to consider at all — but there is a tug-of-war here between her attempt to explore her characters in a very serious way with a consistent emotional basis and the demands of the material as written by Glen Lakin, which is clearly meant to be played as farce most of the time, particularly towards the end.

The first moments of “Being Frank” show high school senior Philip (Logan Miller) doing a practice job interview with his father Frank (Jim Gaffigan), and the way the shots are composed makes us feel Frank’s bullying control over his son; the effect is oppressive and even alienating at first, but to a point.

Over the last few years, the likes of “Swiss Army Man,” “Time Out of Mind,” and “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” have established Miranda Bailey as one of the boldest and most forward-thinking producers in contemporary indie cinema. The films that she’s helped shepherd into the world run the gamut from deranged fart comedies to unflinching social dramas, but all of them are bound together by a radical sense of empathy and a refusal to judge their characters (that latter treat being especially appreciated at a time when many viewers approach movies as though everyone in them were on trial).

A sweet if styleless throwback that tries to milk a few sad laughs from the story of a teenager who discovers that his dad is parenting a second family on the side, Bailey’s narrative feature debut may not hold a candle to the work that she’s produced for other directors,...

A teen discovers that his strict father has a second, happier family in another town in You Can Choose Your Family, the feature debut of director Miranda Bailey and screenwriter Glen Lakin. Standup star Jim Gaffigan, who mines domesticity for laughs so successfully onstage, would seem an ideal choice for a man with twice the responsibilities and one big secret to hide. But Bailey and Lakin give him next to nothing to work with, and the result flops where it should crackle. The comedian's popularity notwithstanding, the pic has little theatrical potential.

Gaffigan's Frank, who runs the family ketchup factory,...