LOS ANGELES — "Post Grad," a comedy about a driven, hardworking college student who's unable to find a job after she graduates, actually might have been relevant. It might have been a satirical and insightful look into how our soured economy has dashed the dreams of a generation.

Instead, it's flat and tonally jumbled.

Alexis Bledel maintains a steady level of wide-eyed pluckiness as Ryden Malby, who just got out of school with an English degree and dreams of working at a prestigious Los Angeles publishing house. When she doesn't get the job she applied for, she ends up back home in the San Fernando Valley with the kind of eccentric family you only find in the movies.

Michael Keaton, as her dad, sells novelty belt buckles; Carol Burnett, as grandma, is obsessed with her own death. Then there's Ryden's little brother (Bobby Coleman), who likes to lick his classmates' heads and communicates through his sock puppet. And Jane Lynch, as her mother, plays the straight woman for once — which isn't a whole lot of fun.

Meanwhile, Ryden rebuffs the romantic advances of her best friend, the spineless and worshipful Adam (Zach Gilford), who would rather write love songs for her than fly across the country to attend law school at Columbia. Instead, she enjoys a fling with her sexy Brazilian neighbor (Rodrigo Santoro), even though — duh — the guy she's supposed to be with has been right in front of her all along. .

Animation veteran Vicky Jenson ("Shrek," "Shark Tale"), directing her first live-action feature from a script by first-timer Kelly Fremon, awkwardly juggles all these subplots. There's a sitcommy quality to the way certain scenes end abruptly on a wacky or raunchy note, or sometimes with a feel-good moment of supposed poignancy.

Jenson also squanders the comic presence of J.K. Simmons, Fred Armisen, Craig Robinson and Demetri Martin in minuscule supporting roles.