“I was a tender twelve years old the first time I experienced a deep and painful loss,” Madison (Vanessa Marano) writes for her college admissions essay. It’s such a powerful and moving piece that Emily proudly says, “Suck my dick, Emily Dickinson,” on finishing.

It’s also about her dead goldfish.

It’s Christmas time and Madison’s blended family and her goofy boyfriend Jimmy (Benjamin Papac) are spending their vacation at a family cabin, in the middle of a frigid Wisconsin winter. After a fight with her mother Charlotte (Gabrielle Carteris) sends the prized turkey dinner swooshing into the trash can, the argument continues at dinner. Madison shouts that Catharine just doesn’t understand her and that she’s always waiting to criticize her. Charlotte, meanwhile, tells her point blank that she doesn’t think any college is going to accept Madison’s essay. And, honestly? She’s probably right.

But no matter. In a huff, she convinces Jimmy to ditch the accidentally vegetarian dinner (RIP turkey) to sneak into a family friend’s abandoned cabin next door. After exploring the place and discovering hodag figurines and a Ouija board, one thing leads to another and they pass out in the neighbors bed. Unfortunately for them, a pair of robbers have been canvassing the neighborhood for empty homes and in the morning, Madison and Jimmy realize that the house they broke into was robbed. An argument leads to a call to the police leads to the police telling them they can’t leave the county which ultimately leads to Madison and Jimmy being forced to stay with Madison’s Uncle Andy (Chris Mulkey).

But Madison knows the robbers will strike again and so she and Jimmy spend their time Home Alone-ing the house to prepare for an eventual showdown between a pair of pair of clueless teens and…well, a pair of clueless robbers.

Written and directed by Maria Bissell as her debut feature film, How to Deter a Robber is an effortlessly charming if slight combination of Fargo’s rural location, quaint pleasantries and bumbling criminals with a teenaged take Home Alone’s home invasion setup. Bissell’s script is very entertaining and the humor is character based. She gets a lot of mileage out of putting these affable characters together and creating a powder keg situation. For the most part, it works exceptionally well. The two leads, in particular, have so much chemistry and hilarious interactions that really sell the story.

On one hand, there’s Jimmy, the kind of adorable dork who works really hard to make Madison happy but is often written-off as immature for liking things like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. While he is incredibly naive, goofy and immature, he’s so earnest in his attempt to make Madison happy. Actor Benjamin Papac imbues the character with so much charm that you want to see him and Madison succeed. Meanwhile, Madison’s more high strung, sarcastic sensibilities plays exceeding well against the earnest Jimmy and a lot of the humor comes from their interactions.

Playing a perfect foil to the clueless teenagers are the two robbers Christine (Abbie Cobb) and Patrick (Sonny Valicenti). Their characters feel like a gender-swapped potential future for Jimmy and Madson, with Abbie playing Christine’s ditzy kindness fighting against Patrick’s rough and angry worldview. They’re Madison and Jimmy, older and more angry at the world and the two couples play off each other perfectly. But the standout is Chris Mulkey as Uncle Andy, the most polite person in the entire movie who is constantly trying to unsuccessfully deescalate the situation. Andy could have stepped out of a Coen Brothers picture, and who tells Madison she can’t go hunt the robbers because, “you’re not Sherlock Holmes...and this is real life” but has no problem handing her and Jimmy scoped rifles to protect themselves. He eventually replaces them with BB guns…

…Jimmy still manages to hurt himself, though.

The majority of How to Deter a Robber is a comedy of errors and politeness as the two teenagers deal with Madison’s over-polite uncle and, eventually, the two robbers. I do wish it had amped the stakes a bit when it entered the midpoint. While the threat of violence is introduced, the narrative stays at a pretty steady and amiable pace throughout the entire film. It’s an entertaining and low-stakes comedy bolstered by oftentimes deadpan dialogue, entertaining and earnest characters and a hilarious denouement.