The prolific Barcelona screenwriter and director Cesc Gay gave us the man and his dog dramedy “Truman,” and the edgier “The People Upstairs,” aka “Sentimental,” just remade by Olivia Wilde as “The Invite.”

So when you see his name on the credits, you expect sophistication and wit that crosses borders and transcends language barriers.

But his “53 Sundays” feels like an unstaged play he plucked out of a seldom-opened drawer and sold to the deep pocket content-cravers at Netflix.

“Unstaged” for a reason is a given. As is “suckers” at Netflix, because their mad rush to create films that play in many markets has them spending mad money on has-been or never-quite-were stars and indulging big name filmmaker/storytellers in their “dream” projects, with decidedly mixed results.

Cesc Gay has a track record. That was good enough for them.

In theatrical terms, “53 Sundays” is a four-hander, four characters in search of a laugh or at least a better story.

One, Carolina (Alexandra Jiménez), is Ms. Exposition, our narrate-to-the-camera “host” for a “fight” between three siblings — one of whom is her partner.

Carolina spends the first seven minutes of the bad play film explaining the family dynamic — the oldest brother Victor (Javier Gutiérrez) who married money and wants little to do with his siblings, the writer/college professor older sister Natalia (Carmen Machi) who workaholics through life as a way of coping with a cheating spouse, and Carolina’s half-broke, under-employed actor partner Julián (popular Spanish character lead Javier Cámara) who is the youngest and feels put upon and taken for granted by his not-wholly-estranged siblings.

The next 70 minutes show us the ways they avoid each other, promising an epic “fight” that never comes, a debate about their 89 year old father who is “forgetting” things, getting lost and “showing his penis” to the neighbors and anybody else within reach.

The pointlessness of this interminably pointless exercise is built in, structural. Consider, the first act is all Carolina and Julián prepping for a dinner party “meeting” between the siblings that doesn’t come off because Victor would rather dash off to Marbella for a little getaway.

The second act is Victor and Julián halfheartedly bickering and waiting for Natalia, who’s a no-show.

And the third act is the Big Fight over “What to do about Dad” that never reaches the level of “fight” much less “big.”

The dialogue is quotably dull, in Spanish or dubbed into English.

“I thought we’d wait an hour before we start arguing.” “Telling the truth is in poor taste.” Victor’s best put-down of his “dumbass little brother” is the script’s only biting line.

“I keep wanting more and more and you keep settling for less.”

The actors aren’t bad. They just have nothing to play. The film never overcomes the low stakes involved, low stakes which the tepid arguments barely address. And it never manages to surprise us from the moment we hear what the “real” beef they have is.

Their father is complaining of a flickering light bulb. WHO will deign to visit Dad and change it? Whose responsibility/JOB is that?

Cesc Gay will of course write and direct again. Maybe next time he’ll spend a little more time on the material, workshop it, figure out it needs more heft and maybe a few laughs.

Maybe next time Netflix will have somebody read this “content” before writing the check.

Rating: TV-MA, profanity, smoking

Cast: Javier Cámara, Carmen Machi, Javier Gutiérrez and Alexandra Jiménez.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Cesc Gay. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:18