The Object of My Affection is based on a novel by Stephen McCauley and has a novel's surfeit of incident. It's crowded with events and crises, and as a result, the protagonists, Nina and George (Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd), never get a chance to turn on the tractor beam of attractiveness. Nina's dissatisfaction with her boyfriend Vince (John Pankow) leads to a deepening friendship with her gay roommate George. Discovering she's pregnant, Nina enlists George to help her raise the child, playing on his affection for her and on his desire for the ordinary pleasures of childhood. But when George tries to have a normal love life, he provokes Nina's jealousy.

Good ideas abound in the screenplay by Wendy Wasserstein: that a family need not happen biologically but can be constructed by choice, like a kit; or that gay relationships suffer from a stigma of impermanence because marriage is not an option. These dramatic situations are garnished with throwaway jokes about pretentious A-list New Yorkers, personified by Nina's stepsister and her literary-agent husband (Allison Janney and Alan Alda). In fact, the comedy is only an occasional fillip on an essentially dramatic storyline, leaving Aniston's most potent talent undisplayed.

Aniston and Rudd have little chemistry, comic or otherwise, and thus have to spend too much time going through the plot's various wringers to develop any character. Their goofy amiability never becomes radiant charm, and perhaps some of the fault can be laid at their rather lightweight skills. Nigel Hawthorne arrives about halfway through The Object of My Affection, playing a drama critic plagued by unrequited love; his sober, poignant presence lends a dignity and wisdom to the film in just a few short scenes. Now there's an actor, and a character, who could anchor a romance and inspire undying affection.