The Deflowering of Evan van End marks the feature debut of its writer-director, Michiel ten Horn. Though he is Dutch and so is this idiosyncratic dramedy, it may very well remind you of offbeat American independent films. With its measured use of the widescreen frame and a score that resembles one of Mark Mothersbaugh's, Deflowering specifically recalls the early work of Wes Anderson, but after one viewing it doesn't seem nearly as charming or entrancing.

The film spends a brief period of time with the van Ends, a Dutch family of five. A wholehearted character study, it divides its time evenly among the dysfunctional clan, making us very familiar with each member. Closest to a protagonist, the titular Eva (Vivian Dierickx) is a quiet, plump, homely girl in her early teens. (I'd probably liken her to Heather Matarazzo's Welcome to the Dollhouse character, if I'd ever seen that '90s Todd Solondz film.) Fond of pan pipes and clothes with cats on them, Eva is a social outcast whose existence seems acknowledged only by one friendly handicapped girl. Even Eva's family pays her little notice; no one hears her when she announces at the dinner table that the family will be hosting a German boy for the next two weeks as part of a school exchange program.

Eva's older brothers are of comparable age, but dissimilar in appearance and interests. The acne-riddled, mature 21-year-old Erwin (Tomer Pawlicki) is a floor manager at a home improvement store. He's in the process of moving out and in with his girlfriend. Middle child Manuel (Abe Dijkman) is a rude punk, entertained by racist jokes and masturbation races with his best friend (they face opposite directions) when he's not making enemies with his hook-ups.

The family's parents will soon celebrate their silver wedding anniversary (25 years) and are planning the party, even though frikadel factory supervisor Evert (Ton Kas) and housewife Etty (Jacqueline Blom) don't appear to be getting along very well these days.

Into this house comes Veit (Rafael Gareisen), a dreamy, worldly blonde German teen who quickly makes an impression on all of his hosts. Eva develops a crush on him, silently and from a distance. Erwin seems attracted to Veit too, suggesting he might be in the closet. Manuel shows the houseguest hostility, even when the two compete in an annual frikadel-eating competition Manuel regularly wins. Meanwhile, Veit opens the van End parents' eyes, the mother to the importance of meditation and the father to the joys of charity, which sees the Dad making a big donation to Veit's African Skype friend.

Deflowering relies on a formula, recently and delightfully employed by the French blockbuster The Intouchables and best exemplified in my mind by the 1995 Sinbad comedy Houseguest. Dissimilar visitor brings change into the lives of the household he is invited to join. Ten Horn, though, isn't out to make you laugh or feel good. His film is alternately depressing, disturbing, and gross. At the same time, it is also diverting and substantial.

The filmmaker is fully invested in these personalities and makes it easy for you to do the same, even if you can't relate to or sympathize with them. Truthfully, the latter tasks are a challenge, not due to any cultural distance but because the van Ends aren't an easy bunch to warm to. While he's worked exclusively in the Netherlands, writing and directing a number of shorts before and after this, ten Horn has an American sensibility to him. He even has some of the film play in English, making English language learning the chief purpose of the school exchange program.

The influence of Anderson seems unmistakable, especially near the end when the director uses slow motion on unremarkable action and moves the camera around to lap up crumbs from the family's life at the end of Veit's stay. Ten Horn even closes with a cover of The Beach Boys' "Sloop John B", a song that originally closed The Royal Tenenbaums before clearance trouble made Anderson settle for Van Morrison's perhaps even more fitting "Everyone" instead.

After making its premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, Deflowering received theatrical release in the Netherlands last February. In July, the film reached the United States as "Year 11, Film 7" in Film Movement's Film of the Month Club. This week, that DVD hit general retail and is the subject of this review.