Massively promising new-kid-on-the-block type Jake Gyllenhaal, the insane anti-hero of Donnie Darko, teams up with well-seasoned old stagers Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon for this occasionally effective, if inordinately slushy melodrama.

Written and directed by Brad Silberling, Moonlight Mile is based on his own enormously tragic experience of having his actress girlfriend murdered, with Silberling’s surrogate character Joe (Gyllenhaal) then continuing to live with her parents as both the grieving process and a gruelling legal battle unfold.

While it would obviously be unconscionably cruel to wish Silberling any ill after such a poxy throw of the dice, it cannot be denied that his City Of Angels (1998), a horrifically high-gloss remake of Wenders’ Wings Of Desire, ranks among the vilest cinematic war crimes of all time.

Moonlight Mile goes some way to restore sympathy, largely in part to Gyllenhaal’s engaging and sympathetic central performance, with flashes of the script offering a loving and clear-eyed examination of loyalty and loss. Irritatingly, though, Siberling’s inveterate tendency to crank up the schmaltz factor keeps raising its head, and the result is a movie considerably less affecting than it could and should be.

Still, unanimously fine acting ensures that this might jerk a tear or two from the weepier members of the audience.