In comedy, it’s easy to forgive cheap sets, dull photography and bad taste if a movie passes a simple test: It has to be funny. Love Stinks fails this prerequisite miserably, so all of its flaws seem more glaring.

To be fair, writer-director Jeff Franklin (who created TV’s Full House) does have a juicy setup. Seth Winnick (French Stewart from 3rd Rock from the Sun) is in an enviable position. He and his writing partner Larry (Bill Bellamy, love jones) have just created a hot sitcom. Consequently he has a job he loves and makes a ton of cash for it.

His blessing appears to have increased when he meets a lovely interior decorator named Chelsea (Bridgette Wilson). Sadly, Seth ignores omens that indicate Chelsea is as unstrung as she is attractive. Chelsea’s home is adorned with bridal magazines, and she constantly pressures Seth to commit. She moves in, quits her job and starts taking over his life. Not only does she remodel his home, she orders pricey items at Seth’s expense and even tries to influence his casting decisions.

The situation explodes when Seth fails to propose to Chelsea on Valentine’s Day, and she begins a vicious campaign to punish him for his perceived treachery. Refusing to move out, she adopts a brood of cats to aggravate Seth’s allergies and slaps him with a steep palimony suit.

Seth’s misfortunes might have made for some wicked black comedy, but Franklin lacks the edge to make it work. The jokes are consistently stale. Seth declines to dance because he suffers from “white man’s disease, the death of rhythm.” There are also some tepid references to colonics and a series of lame entertainment industry in-jokes. At least Bowfinger and The Muse each had a few gags for Hollywood outsiders. Franklin’s final botch is the forced happy ending in Las Vegas with many nods to Elvis.

What’s most irksome about Love Stinks is that it comes close to making an interesting point about the relationships where people are so eager to get married that they fail to check if their partners are good mates. Franklin does such a shallow job of examining the comic potential of the situation that one ends up more indifferent than amused.

Love Stinks proves that there are two types of independent films: The first offers material that mainstream studios wouldn’t touch; the other offers derivative fare that makes big studio product look golden in comparison. Love Stinks is very much the latter. (R)

........................................................................................................