Richard Alfieri, adapting his own play, transposes Chekhov’s The Three Sisters to a contemporary college on New York’s Upper East Side where, helpfully, everyone on the English faculty seems to conceive of him- or herself as a Chekhov character. The result is an insufferable academic cocktail party of declamatory speeches coaxed to life in its middle stretch by the incredible Maria Bello, who wades in like a paramedic at a disaster scene. Director Arthur Allan Seidelman squanders a cast that includes Steven Culp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Eric McCormack, Chris O’Donnell, and Rip Torn. 113 min.
