Live Free or Die

Not to be confused with the upcoming “Die Hard” sequel of a similar title, “Live Free or Die” is an independently-made dark comedy about petty crooks in New Hampshire. Written and directed by Gregg R. Kavet ’90 and Andy E. Robin ’90—both of whom are former writers for “Seinfeld”—“Live Free or Die” aspires to be a hybrid between “Garden State” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and it has won jury commendations at both the 2006 Seattle Film Festival and the 2006 South By Southwest Film Festival.

Unfortunately, the film’s mixture of soul-searching angst and renegade idealism creates more melancholy than comedy in a cinematic experience that gets old fast.

The story is about the rise and fall of John “Rugged” Rudgate (Aaron Stanford, “X-Men: The Last Stand”) and his notorious life of crime. Initially, Rugged’s attempts at law-breaking are so pathetic that the only person who thinks he’s cool is his half-wit sidekick, Lagrand (Paul Schneider, “All the Real Girls”).

Through twists of fate and macabre miscommunication, however, Rugged bumbles into a status upgrade from town peon to local legend and “cop killer” by the end of the film.

“Live Free or Die” follows Rugged through exploits and errors alike, introducing the audience to a cast of likeable but one-dimensional characters who (like the whole of the movie) are initially amusing but fail to develop depth.

Stanford’s Rugged is a weasel of a man, so insecure and pathetic that his rapid-fire con-man act sounds more pitiable than convincing. Schneider’s Lagrand is a one-trick pony of affected mannerisms—a special-ed voice and a twitching hair flip—that becomes seriously annoying by film’s end, since he has copious camera time.

In terms of secondary characters, the movie takes a “Super Troopers”-esque stab at parodying small-town cops, with such amusing situations as shootouts at the Neighbors’ Market and interrogations concerning the differences between vans and minivans.

It also typecasts Zooey Deschanel as the responsible yet humorless younger sister, and features some bizarre, seedy-underbelly types, like the thieving and Ultimate Fighting Champion-training LM Gazaniga (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Lake House”) and the entertainingly vulgar hardware store owner, Hesh (Judah Friedlander, “30 Rock”).

The film’s strengths lie in its musical and visual trappings. Good costuming insured that each caricature-character looks the part, while the rhythm and blues-infused garage rock music by Stevie Salas and Dorian Heartsong captures the careless, rebellious, and dangerous energy of the film.

The movie also intersperses shaky, close-up hand-camera shots with picturesque and still images, which lends “Live Free or Die” the look of a beautiful, low-budget affair, which is doubtlessly what earned the film’s critical acclaim.

Sadly, the poor direction and too-minimal editing create an unfocused melodrama out of what could have been either a riotous comedy or a love letter to small-town New Hampshire.

Unlike much of the plot of “Live Free or Die,” Kavet and Robin have a history of comedy that actually makes people laugh. They won an Emmy for their work with “Seinfeld,” and in 2005 they penned a how-to book on escaping awkward social interactions called “Saving Face.”

But in “Live Free or Die” there is nothing funny about the not-so-ironic depression that follows the audience home after witnessing a full-length film about hopeless, directionless mediocrity and with barely enough character development for one episode of a sitcom.

—Staff writer Mollie K. Wright can be reached at mkwright@fas.harvard.edu.