Not worth caring ‘about Joan’

Joan Cusack is one of those actresses who will be forever in mind as a second banana, slightly crazy supporting character who you always want around but never want to have to focus on for too long. She’s got a quirky, neurotic flair for comedy and a talent for acting that allows her to play off other characters and interact best with equally skilled costars, tossing barbs back and forth with a bit of a sneer. Reference her Oscar-nominated performance in 1997’s “In and Out,” where she manages to steal scenes from Kevin Kline, not an easy task, or in “Working Girl,” where she’s a staple of a talented cast, holding her own with the likes of Melanie Griffith and Kevin Spacey. So why on earth has she taken leave of supporting actress heaven for TV sitcom hell?

“What About Joan” brings Cusack down to earth as good, old-fashioned and caring Chicago schoolteacher, and, in all honesty, Joan Cusack is not old-fashioned and down-to-earth. She’s wonderfully nutty with just the right mix of neuroticism and quirkiness, but at the same time can also be dramatic and fully focused. “What About Joan?” doesn’t really know what to do with either of these extremes, so it makes the fatal mistake of finding a medium between them and making Cusack into an inconsistent character. Is she funny? Sort of. Is she quirky? Once in a while. Is she dramatic? Maybe. Her character exudes no true depth, but rather a series of flighty excursions that go off in all directions from no apparent foundation.

Of course it doesn’t help that she’s got a mix of talents in her supporting cast who don’t quite know what to do with themselves. Her love interest (Kyle Chandler, of that briefly-lived weirdness “Early Edition”) is bland, and their interaction is boring, abounding with the recycled quirks of thousands of other sitcom relationships. The only bright spot in the cast seems to be Kellie Shanygne Williams (who makes this reporter feel really old, considering he grew up with a much younger Williams on “Family Matters”), who shows that there is life after the exploits of the Winslow family and Steve Urkel.

Joan Cusack has been stuck with a bland, unoriginal sitcom and a supporting cast that can’t really make up the difference. Here’s hoping she doesn’t go the way of Bonnie Hunt, another excellent and under-appreciated supporting-role-type who tried her hand at television and wound up in the ratings graveyard. “What About Joan” either needs both a fresh premise and a better use of Cusack’s talents, or her career will suffer a boredom-induced fade into the realm of has-been. At least there will always be bit roles in John’s movies.