I'm With Lucy

I'm With Lucy is an imaginative twist on the usual guy-meets-girl story. After her break-up with a long-term boyfriend, Lucy is persuaded to get back in the game with blind dates. In one year, she is set up with five different men and each encounter brings its own successes and minor disasters. But who will turn out to be the one for her?

Doug (John Hannah) is a shy divorcee and, being her first date, gets Lucy at her worst. When he arrives to pick her up, her sister has to physically drag her out of the bathroom, where she's been drinking herself into a stupor - you can imagine how smoothly the night goes!

Next, she hooks up with playwright Gabriel (Gael Garcia Bernal), who has no trouble seducing her with his intelligence and exotic looks.

Anthony LaPaglia is on good form, as arrogant baseball star Bobby, who is outraged when Lucy fails to recognise him and retaliates with an infuriating display of machismo.

Number four is boy-next-door type Barry (Henry Thomas), with whom she has a truly cringeful date, ending up at her parents' apartment, watching slideshows of herself as a gawky kid.

Lastly, she's instantly attracted to heartthrob Luke (David Boreanaz), an osteopath who reads Walt Whitman. But will his practiced charms be enough to sweep her down the aisle?

The film cuts between dates, eventually bringing each one to its conclusion, and although it's not totally successful in maintaining the suspense - of course, we know who she's going to marry! - the fractured style keeps it interesting.

The writing is quirky, with a bittersweet sense of humour that is delicately delivered by the cast. Whilst Monica Potter has been likened to Julia Roberts, it would be unfair to paint her as a budget imitation. She has a deadpan sincerity that is all her own and she's really quite likeable as the utterly good-natured Lucy, tempering what could be a sickly character with introspection and understated strength.

Her supporting cast (male) put in assured performances, too. An oddball assortment they may be, but it actually adds to the movie's unconventional character.

This is by no means a groundbreaking film, but it's charming and well crafted, and doesn't try too hard to pull at the audience's heartstrings.

Director Jon Sherman shows that romance doesn't to have to be nauseating!