Film titles don't come much more symbolic than the moniker of writer/director Edward Burns' latest trawl through the mean streets of New York City. Set in 1983 on (you guessed it) Ash Wednesday, it's 24 hours in the life of Francis Sullivan (Edward Burns) who's struggling to do the right thang after his kid brother (Elijah Wood) upsets the local mob bosses. An awkward effort from a filmmaker who ought to know better, it's the kind of film that's difficult to get excited about.

Ever since Burns carved a rep for himself with his critically acclaimed debut The Brothers McCullen, he's been hanging out in this neighbourhood. Ash Wednesday may be darker than his grubby Manhattan romantic comedies - Sidewalks Of New York or She's The One - but it's no less familiar. And familiarity breeds contempt, not least of all from the writer/director/star himself.

"COASTING INSTEAD OF SIZZLING"

Coasting instead of sizzling, this slow-burning drama combines a dull script, lots of overripe symbolism and a host of lazy acting. The weakest link is Elijah Wood as Francis' kid brother, a boy who was forced to fake his death after he killed three gangsters gunning from his brother. Escaping from the neighbourhood with the help of Francis, and a kindly Catholic priest (James Handy) three years earlier, he's back to reclaim his wife (Rosario Dawson).

Fresh out of Middle-earth, Wood delivers a performance that lives up to his surname, limping through the dramatic highs and lows as though he's waiting for the special effects to kick in. Burns does little to inject the proceedings with energy, playing yet another of his archetypal blue-collar heroes struggling to get through life with dignity and honour. Neither of them are helped by the faintly ludicrous decision to have all of the principal characters' foreheads daubed with ash crosses from their early morning visits to mass. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Goodbye subtlety, hello neon-lit metaphor.