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The problems with Rare Objects, Katie Holmes’ limp third directorial feature, aren’t immediately apparent. The film, which the actress also co-wrote and stars in, lures you with the potential of the biographical details revealed in the first scene. Benita, played by Julia Mayorga, sits before an attending doctor (Matthew Lawler) at the unnamed hospital from which she is being discharged. He recounts a mix of mundane and distressing facts: Benita was previously a student at the City University of New York; she had an abortion; and she checked herself into the hospital for Ptsd and anxiety. These notes do not define a life, but they do promise a story far more involving than what Rare Objects ultimately offers.

Holmes and her co-writer Phaedon A. Papadopoulos adapted their screenplay from Kathleen Tessaro’s novel of the same name. Tessaro’s Rare Objects takes place in Depression-era Boston, where its main character,...