There are two fundamental conditions of romantic comedy. Condition 1: it must be romantic. Condition 2: it must be funny. Had director Freundlich exploited either of these to a natural conclusion, Trust The Man would have been an altogether better film. Putting his wife and best mates together, an exciting opportunity of talent, is not of itself, enough. He needed a story, but foremost, we need a point.

Trust The Man is Allen-lite, a familiar yarn about two New York couples falling apart. One, happily married, is so consumed by day to day life – possibly, their core problem is not particularly clear – that their sex life suffers. It leads to infidelity and anguish. Meanwhile her brother, his best-friend, is unable to commit to marriage forcing his girlfriend of standing to look elsewhere. There’s the romance, and comedy lurks in a hokey device that brings them back to happiness. Freundlich gives it a twist by laying culpability on the men who need to find trust; for once they do, all will be forgiven. Quite why is one of many things about Trust The Man that remain unresolved.

To Freundlich’s credit, there are some amiable passages before a shrill and utterly ridiculous showdown, yet these moments invariably fail when the best lines are left to founder in undirected mouths. There’s nothing romantic in watching talent of this calibre tripping over itself. It’s not funny either. But there is a precedent: his World Traveller - also starring Crudup and Moore – didn’t exactly set imaginations alight. The real crime is that after failing to make much of a point, an exciting cast has been squandered in such an unexciting film.

// COLIN FRASER