Director: Anand Tucker, US, 15, 95min
Stars: Steve Martin, Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman
On general release
Danes is achingly lovely in a role that requires us to believe that she’s lonely and overlooked in LA, her old-fashioned elegance (elbow-length gloves and demure twin-sets) no match for the showier beauties in their push-up bras. However, she suddenly acquires two very different suitors. Schwartzman is an immature oaf, while Martin (who adapted the script from his novella) is an urbane millionaire. Unfortunately, Martin lets his character off rather lightly — we are not encouraged to judge this predatory older man, but to sympathise with his commitment issues. If the pairing of an actor in his sixties and an actress in her twenties wasn’t such a tiresome cliché, this gentle, low-key character study would be far more persuasive.
WENDY IDE