A lot of really big, supportive hugs are exchanged in The Hungry Bachelors Club, a stale indie dramedy that buckles under the weight of its painful earnestness. Intended as a breezy celebration of love, family, good food, and other everyday virtues, the film's appealing warmth and good intentions are also central to its undoing, as Gregory Ruzzin's sensitive direction fails to exploit a shred of dramatic tension in the story. ER's Jorja Fox leads a solid ensemble cast as a divorcée with dreams of opening a quaint little restaurant but without the capital to do it. Her best friend and roommate Suzanne Mara, desperate to marry a sleazy lawyer (Paul Provenza) who's intent on becoming a partner first, is offered a proposal that will solve both their problems. If Fox agrees to become a surrogate mother for Provenza's boss (Michael Des Barres), she'll get paid enough to open the restaurant and he'll get his promotion. A host of other characters are introduced, most notably Do The Right Thing's Bill Nunn as a gentle ex-con with a love of cooking and vintage Cadillacs, but none make much of an impression. The Hungry Bachelors Club sheepishly touches on hot-button social issues (surrogacy, interracial relationships), but it has little more on its mind than ingratiating itself to the audience. Ruzzin's compulsive need to edge every scene toward understanding and reconciliation—hence, the hugging—flattens the melodrama into bland predictability. After 15 minutes, just think of the happiest possible way each subplot could be resolved and the film practically directs itself.