Don’t get too excited about the prospect of Steve Coogan playing an American right-wing radio host. The British actor’s comic wings are clipped in this sincere but unwieldy film about an abrasive radio personality whose heretofore-unknown African-American teenage niece shows up at his fancy New York City apartment.

Tess (Taylor Russell) has left home after her mother returned to rehab, and while the by-the-bootstraps blowhard Lionel Macomb (Coogan) doesn’t believe in handouts or charity or even kindness, he reluctantly lets her stay. His publicist and girlfriend Valerie (Neve Campbell) is nicer to the girl, and soon, points of view are being challenged and upsetting family memories are being unearthed.