Actress stands out in off beat comedy

In the new Amazon comedy “I Love Dick,” the three central characters are based on Chris Kraus’ unconventional and semiautobiographical 1997 novel.

The three corners of the wonderfully messy triangle are played by Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Hahn and Griffin Dunne.

Although the triangle is crucial, the series becomes Hahn’s because it centers primarily on her character’s journey.

The actress responds with a captivating performance worthy of Emmy consideration.

Co-creator Jill Soloway, whose credits include the Amazon series “Transparent,” has provided Hahn with a career-defining challenge. Soloway has said that Hahn, who grew up in Cleveland Heights, is her muse in much the way that Robert De Niro is a muse for director Martin Scorsese.

“I Love Dick” — available for streaming today — is an extremely smart, wildly eccentric and very adult comedy.

Hahn plays Chris, an independent filmmaker married to an older and more successful academic, Sylvere (Dunne). Chris, at last, appears to be at the brink of a big break.

Her plan is to drop off Sylvere at a residency fellowship program in the remote west Texas art community of Marfa — a program run by a charismatic sculptor, Dick Jarrett (Bacon).

When her film is pulled from the Venice International Film Festival because of a licensing dispute, Chris finds herself stranded in Marfa and, strangely, attracted to the cowboy cool of Jarrett.

Trying to make sense of it all, Chris begins writing to Jarrett, slowly finding herself and her true voice.

“Her whole life, Chris has been defined by how she’s been perceived by men,” Hahn says in a release from Amazon. “It is (about) the discovery of a woman’s voice.”

And an intriguing voice, at that.