By design, romantic comedy is light and fluffy. Sure the narrative arc may be bumpy and there’ll be inevitable teary scenes before equally inevitable resolutions. We don’t want our romance ruined by reality – where’s the fun in that? Mess with the formula and you’re in trouble. So it’s not the lesbian twist that turns Imagine Me and You into a Sunday roast of cinematic cuisine. It’s the weary lack of humour. After all, romantic comedy has to be funny.

As with most British romcoms, it starts with a wedding. Channelling Hugh Grant, Matthew Goode’s Heck is getting married to Rachel (Piper Perabo). Then she spots Luce the florist (Lena Headey), her heart goes bang and it’s all up hill and down dale from there. “Do you believe in love at first sight?” she asks. Well of course. There wouldn’t be a story without it. The fanciable Goode (Match Point) is an attractive visual balance to the equally fanciable Headey and Perabo.

Sadly for him, his boy-bits are no competition for a feminine florist; accordingly the cuckolded husband bows out with good grace and manners. His mum has brought him up well, a feature that overwhelms director Ol Parker’s efforts. Everyone is just so damn nice (except Rachel’s mum – Celia Imrie – who steals every scene she’s in). While he extracts an agreeable sense of the softly amusing, Imagine Me and You is desperately short on humour. Which simply leaves romance and this tale of burgeoning lesbianism is no Gone with the Wind. It’s no Personal Best for that matter. Love at first sight may have its fans, but few of them will be found in the cinema.

// COLIN FRASER