Lindsay Lohan wants to grow up. Perhaps tired of the grind and responsibility of making films for tweens, "Just My Luck" entrusts her with a role in which she can play a bona fide adult. Whether or not Lohan is ready for such a leap is the larger question that plagues this laborious and mind-numbing romantic comedy.

There's little doubt that Lohan is a charmer; she's single-handedly propped up crud like "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" and "Mean Girls," and her raspy quirks were put to good use in last summer's "Herbie" reprise. "Luck" pushes Lohan to the next stage of comedienne, organizing slapstick sequences for her that should be lightweight fun, however each one seems worse than the last. "Luck" goes for a Lucille Ball feel, putting Lohan in situations that require comedic chaos to get her into trouble, and a blinding smile that acts as her personal "get out of jail free" card. I have no problem with Lohan desiring to be Lucy, but she's got to find a better director than the torturous Donald Petrie to help get her to that level.

Petrie is a notorious studio hack, churning out such unimaginative fare as "Welcome to Mooseport" and "Miss Congeniality." He's a filmmaker without an inch of personality in anything he makes. "Luck" furthers his creative headlock as Petrie aims for the lowest entertainment level possible for every scene in the film. The director encourages his talent to mug for the camera, fills the supporting cast with actors free of inspiration or charisma, and when the multitude of wacky set-pieces with Lohan and Pine fail to bond due to Petrie's sledgehammer touch with humor, he has a wealth of animal feces jokes to back him up.

What Petrie ignores in his pursuit of inconsistency is the bridge between Ashley and Jake. "Luck" is a film heavily controlled by a screenplay that Petrie fully believes contains all the cinematic ingredients for easy direction. Watching "Luck," there's not a moment where the two leads ignite their spark. Pine plays his role with boy scout naiveté, while Lohan keeps her attention on pratfalls and "did I do that?" faces. It's the script that brings the characters together, not actor chemistry or meticulous directorial attention, and it cheats the film of the one thing it needs the most: a sweet and engaging romance.

Strangely, "Luck" is also a 100 minute commercial for an English power pop/emo band called McFly, who play the struggling group Jake is managing. Playing a rather large and unexpected role in the film, the band is described a "cross between the Beatles and Blink 182." That loosely translates into "bottomlessly awful." Come to think of it, I guess they do fit in with everything else going on in "Just My Luck."