“The Great Buck Howard” is the story of a disillusioned law school dropout, Troy (played by Tom Hanks’ son Colin), who takes a job as manager for a fading mentalist, Buck Howard (John Malkovich). Howard’s act includes hypnotism, guessing what number an audience member has written down and an excruciatingly corny bit where he sits at a piano, leans way down into a microphone and half-sings, half-talks “what the world needs now is love … sweet love.” But his crowds are getting sparse and old, and even though he’s a big hit in Akron, Vegas isn’t calling anymore.At one stop, he’s got a single press event — “With whom?” he asks. “An Internet columnist,” he’s told. “Well, see, I don’t even know that paper.”It’s a fictionalized version of the life of The Amazing Kreskin, who appeared on The Tonight Show (the one hosted by Johnny Carson) 56 times — sort of the same kind of thing Tom Hanks tried to do with 1996’s “That Thing You Do!” which took a few details from the career of The Beatles and turned it into a totally different and not nearly as interesting story.

That was the younger Hanks’s first movie role as well, but neither “That Thing You Do!” nor “The Great Buck Howard” will launch him into any kind of stardom. Colin Hanks has a bit of his dad’s sweeter expressions, but lacking much of his own thing, he’s just a glimmer of his dad. He’s not even a copy. His shoehorned-in love interest, a drunkorexic press attaché named Valerie, seems only to exist in this movie to give Troy, who already narrates, completely unnecessarily, more chances to talk about his dim inner life. (I guess she also proves how skinny one can get on 800 calories of Scotch a day.)”How in the world does a guy like you meet Buck Howard?” she asks the glum Troy, who proceeds to pour out what little passion he has on her: “I want to spend the time I have doing something that makes my heart race,” a line that will only get you chicks if you’re Tom Hanks’ son. Later on, oh-so concerned about her love interest, Valerie implores “You’ve got to quit this job,” as though Troy is traveling down into the Fiberglas mines every day instead of signaling light cues on a headset and stocking Buck’s dressing room with brandy.Malkovich, who inhabits his hand-pumping, audience-schmoozing leisure suit, is the only thing that keeps the movie from being completely dismal. We wonder if his biggest trick isn’t just fooling himself into thinking he is — or was ever — hot stuff.The story is distracted from that story, though, by too many so-called cute bits, like the pan over a Bakersfield, Calif., marquee in which the “O” in “CENTER OF ARTS” is missing. If you don’t catch that cheap gag the first time, they show it again later in the movie. Then, there’s the half-baked and extraneous rumor about Buck Howard’s sexuality. There’s a bit where Buck Howard tells Troy, carrying a to-go Cobb salad, that “when we get back to the hotel, you can toss my salad.” Groan.Written and directed by Sean McGinly, who did work as the real Kreskin’s manager, the story is a bit fiction and a bit reality. But instead of picking the best parts of each to create something even better, “Buck Howard” seems caught in the doldrums of compromise — truth is only rarely stranger than fiction in this movie, and the flights of fancy never leave the ground.”Buck Howard” is OK. “Great”? Not so much.

Ashley O’Dell reviews movies that aren’t in theaters anymore.