“Downtown Owl” (** out of four) was an overly cute adaptation of Chuck Klosterman’s 2008 novel set in 1980’s North Dakota in the midst of a blizzard which affects three small-town characters- an old man (Ed Harris) who spends his days reciting lines he’s heard from the coffee shop, a depressed high-school quarterback (August Blanco Rosenstein), and a hard-partying teacher (Vanessa Hudgens). Sincere performances can only do so much with a script and characters that ring hollow and false. Harris actually performs one of the songs on film’s lively soundtrack.