Being a teenager is hard. Being a teenager in love is the hardest of all. The Albanian gay coming-of-age character study, “I Love You More” is a personal film for its writer/director Erblin Nushi, as the mother character is based on the real life relationship with his own mom. One can feel honesty in the strong familial bond between mother and son. Their scenes give the film a much-needed dramatic strength. It is a shame the rest of the film cannot achieve such honesty.

A young Kosovar teen named Ben (Don Shala) is traversing not only the normal teen issues and emotions. At the forefront of his every thought is his first love, Leo (Leonik Sahiti), someone he met online. The two try their best to keep the flame of their life affair alive through talking on the computer and texting via phone. As Leo lives in Germany (a different time zone) and cellphone credits become an issue, times are tough for their “relationship”. The two struggle to say so much with so little time. Though they have never actually met, Leo is the only thing Ben wants to think about as his desire for a real time meet grows stronger.

Ben comes out to his best friend Linda (Zana Berisha), but has not yet revealed his truth to his family. His mother, Nora (Irena Aliu) knows her son is gay and accepts his sexuality (though not immediately “all-in”). Ben’s father Bashkim (Luan Jaha) does not.

The family finds a once-in-a-lifetime chance to move out of the country, as they have won a Green Card lottery and are to go to America to live with Ben’s sister. The young man resists, because leaving would mean losing his chance to meet Leo in the flesh. Bashkim pushes back against his son, as Ben’s obsession with Leo becomes overwhelming and threatens to delay the move to the United States. This plot point is rather absurd, as no family would adjust moving to another country to appease a teenage love affair.

The audience is meant to feel anger towards Ben’s father, as the character represents a lack of acceptance that destroys both families and lives, but Ben is (overly?) written to the point where any sympathy begins to fade and we can somewhat understand Bashkim’s anger toward his son. One shouldn’t be in legion with a father’s refusal to accept his gay son, but it is realistic to understand his resentment due to Ben’s emotional crisis upending such an important moment in the lives of his family.

As Ben, Don Shala does fine, but the screenplay crafts him too petulant to elicit much sympathy, as he is almost always seen in a state of tears or sulking or brimming with pent up rage. Teen angst is one thing, but Ben’s overemotional depiction is over the top and drowns in the script’s agonizing “Blanche Dubois” dramatics.

Added to Ben’s uneven portrayal is an unnecessary series of dreams where Leo cheats on him that only fuel his jealousy and need to meet in person. It becomes clear that Ben is beyond a normal teenager going through issues; he is an obsessive personality that probably needs psychiatric help. The actor is good. The design of the character renders the audience’s empathy unattainable.

As director, Nushi makes the mistake that befalls 99 percent of today’s Indie filmmakers. There is a fine line between artful silences and dull quiet moments. Nushi uses too many long takes of Ben yearning for his distant love. Cinematographer Wenting Deng Fisher achieves some gorgeous shots of the Kosovo locations, but the director’s desire to linger on moments becomes tedious and boring. Modern filmmakers must learn how to use their frame. Silence can be a powerful cinematic tool, but the age of digital filmmaking has eroded the skill (and desire) of creating artful and important imagery that tells a story. Most of today’s younger filmmakers think it profound to show people doing nothing but staring into the distance. It is not. It is lazy and unimaginative filmmaking.

What the film does well is finding a truth in the mother and her reaction to both her son and husband. Irena Aliu rises above the melodrama of it all, her focused performance helping to make Nora’s patience-of-a-saint believable. When the film falters, Aliu’s thoughtful work rights the ship, if only for a moment.

It is unfortunate that “I Love You More” doesn’t have confidence in its own convictions. There is a good story to tell here, but Erblin Nushi won’t let it breathe. He is too interested in overwrought emotions and dramatic devices that ring untrue.

As it stands, this an interesting story clumsily told.

I Love You More

Written & Directed by Erblin Nushi

Starring Don Shala, Irena Aliu, Luan Jaha, Leonik Sahiti

NR, 93 Minutes, Dark Star Pictures/Tilia Entertainment