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The best that I can say about the "The Retributionists" by Daniel Goldfarb is that it was inspired by actual events. But "inspired" is a poor choice of word here because the production is practically a complete misfire. The two-hour running time feels about as long as the three years the story actually spans.

The premise involving a group of young Holocaust survivors who plot their revenge on German citizens just after the war is coincidentally timed with the recent opening of "Inglourious Basterds," but the comparison ends right there. Billed as a romantic thriller, it is neither romantic nor thrilling. "Perplexing" is more like it, and "muddled" and "badly" acted completes the picture.

The story centers on four Jewish freedom fighters who escaped to the forest in 1943 and spent their days alternatingly attacking the Nazis and bedding one another.

Dov is their leader who's supposed to inspire his followers with an irresistible charisma. Anika is the young warrior girl completely smitten with her newfound power. Jascha is the handsome cynical one and Dinchka is the naïve innocent. That I'm able to describe them in such simple terms betrays the cliched writing here. Sad to say, what should be a provocative work is almost comically rendered.

The action shifts to a Paris hotel room, 1946, and they're still plotting, this time with a Plan A and a Plan B that entails poisoning the food rations of Nazi prisoners of war. But with no help from director Leigh Silverman, who fails to locate any dimension in these cartoonish characters, the suspense is nil. Despite all the sexual entanglements there's surprisingly no titillation.

I will name no other names because I suspect everyone's entitled to some mercy - even some bad Germans and unfortunate thespians.