Black butterflies

In “Black Butterfly,” Antonio Banderas’ reclusive, alcoholic writer character Paul suffers from extreme writer’s block. How does the film communicate this? It opens with a shot of him leaning over a typewriter writing the words, “I am stuck” over and over again on a single page.

This would be a snort-worthy sight gag in just about any other movie, but in “Black Butterfly,” it’s one in a long line of leaden attempts to wink at the camera.

Director Brian Goodman (recently recurred on the TNT drama “Rizzoli and Isles&#;) and co-screenwriters Marc Frydman (producer of “Flyboys” and “Welcome to Mooseport”) and Justin Stanley (co-writer of “Beneath Loch Ness&#;) have crafted a charmless, nonsensical thriller, filled to the brim with faux-insights that wouldn’t impress even the most inattentive college freshmen.

“Black Butterfly” communicates all of its empty-headed ideas idiotically, but still retains a knowing smugness regarding its intentions, like it’s pulling a rabbit out of a hat wh