Ol Parker’s twee debut plays like Richard Curtis without the edge. Hard to imagine, I know, but there you have it. With stupendously lousy timing, Piper Perabo, affecting plumy English vowels, plays a newly wed who comes over all bi-curious when introduced to a lesbian florist (Headey) just after the rings have been exchanged.
If only London – as depicted here – had more than six people in it, all living near major tourist attractions, then they wouldn’t keep running into each other. If only we could tell the dreary romantic heroines apart. If only new hubby (Goode) were a classic British cad, like Hugh Grant in American Dreamz, Piper could flounce off for some hot girl-on-girl action in good conscience. Unhappily, he bears far more similarity to the likeable, dependable pre-sleaze High Grant of Four Weddings And A Funeral.
Slavishly adhering to every fluffy Brit rom-com cliché – the shrill mother, the precocious kid sister, the slutty best man are all present and correct – after a good deal of hand-wringing and will she/won’t she shenanigans, we end up on a chase to the airport to prevent the object of Ms. Perabo’s affections from leaving for good.
Suffice to say, Madchen In Uniform this ain’t.