Movie review: ‘I Do’ doesn’t do much for same-sex couple love story

It was only a matter of time before the green-card marriage immigration scheme and the marriage equality issue merged in one well-meaning romantic comedy. That film is “I Do,” a sweet, sincere, yet ultimately tepid story about Jack (David W. Ross, who wrote and produced) — a gay, single, unassuming Brit who’s lived in New York so long that when his visa suddenly isn’t renewed, the prospect of returning to England feels like moving to a foreign country. (Among other firm U.S. roots, he’s been helping his brother’s widow — played by Alicia Witt — raise his nephew.)

But just when Jack enters into an appearances-only marriage with a newly unattached lesbian friend (Jamie Lynn Sigler), he finally meets Mr. Right, a Spanish American architect (Maurice Compte).

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Though the romantic/familial web-weaving has the trappings of a modern commitment farce, Ross and director Glenn Gaylord see their immigration love story in more serious — read: regrettably dull and schematic — terms. It means the third-act jealousies, emotional revelations, and make-or-break decisions carry the whiff of, pardon the pun (but not the irony), straight-laced melodrama, over which the issue of unfairly treated same-sex, binational couples is highlighted in marker rather than deeply explored.

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“I Do.” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes. Playing at the Downtown Independent and Sundance Sunset.