A serious drama is not supposed to make you laugh.

It feels wrong.

“The Identical”(Rated PG; 107 min) is one of those films.

Every piece of dialogue, action — and sometimes even the music — all contribute to this unintentional laughter.

“The Identical” is a film directed by Dustin Marcellino, and stars Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Joe Pantoliano and Blake Rayne.

When a couple struggling during the Great Depression has a pair of twins, they decide to give one of the babies to a traveling preacher and his wife. Years later, one of the boys becomes a famous rock star and the other an impersonator of his famous brother. The impersonator struggles to please his preacher father and get out of the shadow of his famous brother.

There is nothing wrong with religious or spiritual themes in film.

Using allegories, fictional representations and other storytelling devices, films can achieve these themes without being too overt about it. When the movie shoves these themes down the viewer’s throat, however, the film has failed to do its job.

A film should have a functioning story with characters that have thoughts and feelings in a world within the movie. The moment a movie puts a message above either of these, it becomes propaganda.

“Identical” fails to create a believable world. Even with a concept full of potential and interesting pathways, it is dull.

No one in this film has anything resembling a character moment, a character arch or anything resembling character structure. They are not characters. They are stock mouthpieces used to push off an agenda.

No one involved understood what the nature or culture of rock ‘n’ roll was in the 1950s or after. The screenwriters must have watched “Walk the Line” or “Ray” the night before writing the screenplay. After watching it, their reactions must have been to copy those themes but take out all of the character-defining moments.

The film is clearly taking a cue from the life and music of Elvis Presley. It is noticeable in every “Jailhouse Rock” sounding song in the film.

This is fine, however. When creating a fake historical figure, many writers tend to make amalgamations of existing historical figures. In this case, the writers should have just made a biographical Elvis movie.

It is sad to see actors of such talent in this film. It is extremely evident in Ray Liotta’s case.

Liotta has been in some of the greatest films of all time. “Field of Dreams” and “Goodfellas” are both classics in their genre. As of late, Liotta has found himself in a predicament common for many aging actors. When the good roles stop coming in, they must turn to the straight-to-DVD market.

While his acting is some of the best in this film, it is still only the best acting worthy of a straight-to- DVD quality film.

This film is really bad. While not as boring some of the movies out there, any moment of enjoyment from this film will come from an ironic way of thinking.

It is simple. Do not see this movie.

Jacob Pierce can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @JacobPierce1_DE or at 536-3311 ext. 273