Dan Webster: ‘Self Reliance’ is comedy actor Jake Johnson’s first as a director and it shows

Tommy is in a slump. His longtime girlfriend dumped him, he works at a nothing kind of job and – despite being nearly 40 years old – he lives with his mother.

So it’s totally believable that, if given the opportunity, he would be willing to gamble with his life, such as it is.

Which is convenient because that very kind of offer is presented to him one day by none other than the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Andy Samberg (playing himself). It’s Samberg who leads Tommy to a couple of characters, both of whom would seem at home in a David Lynch film.

Those characters tell Tommy they run a contest on the dark web and that, if he so chooses, he could win a million-dollar prize. All he has to do is avoid being murdered for a full 30 days.

During that time, the two explain, he will be hunted by a gang of assassins, all of whom will be intent on killing him. His only advantage: They can’t kill him if he stays in direct physical contact with someone else.

And all throughout the 30 days, or however long Tommy can last, online viewers will be paying to watch what happens. Talk about reality TV.

This is the basic plotline of “Self Reliance,” a Netflix film that was written and directed by its star, Jake Johnson, one-time co-star of the sitcom “New Girl” and supporting player in such feature films as “Jurassic World” and the 2017 Tom Cruise version of “The Mummy.”

“Self Reliance” is Johnson’s first experience as a director, not to mention writer-director, and his sitcom-comedy background shows, both in the script and in how he develops it as a hit-and-miss feature film.

In terms of the comedy, Tommy’s ability to survive the contest is complicated by a couple of things. One involves his family, which includes not just his mother but his two sisters, all of whom have trouble believing Tommy’s story. The way they all interact, which feels both comic and authentic, may be the most amusing thing the film has to offer.

The other complication involves the people Tommy gets to accompany him. The first is James (played by an actor with the improbable name of Biff Wiff), an unhoused guy who is only too happy to be paid to do basically nothing except hang out.

And then there’s Maddy (played by the ultracute Anna Kendrick), a woman who answers Tommy’s online ad and who says she is trying to win her own version of the same contest. The two team up, with Maddy providing the film’s romantic core.

Few of the killers who stalk Tommy are particularly memorable, though brief appearances by the likes of Samberg, Wayne Brady and Christopher Lloyd provide some sense of fun. As for the question of whether Tommy is really being threatened, or is living out an overly imaginative nightmare, well, that isn’t resolved until the film’s final 5 minutes.

In fact, referring back to the presence of Kendrick, “cute” is probably the best word to apply to “Self Reliance,” a film that is more likely to evoke a few chortles here and there rather than any serious guffaws at all.