In adapting Giles Mimouni’s psychological thriller L’Appartement (1996), Scottish director Paul McGuigan looses the plot. Shifting the story to the grey, bleak wasteland of Chicago is indicative of the story’s new journey. It’s centred around the torment of young Matthew (Josh Hartnett) who overhears the voice of ex-flame Lisa (Troy’s Diane Kruger) in a local restaurant. Stunned, he cancels an upcoming trip to Tokyo and spends the weekend tracking her down – even though he is on the verge of marrying another woman. It seems Matthew never really got over the girl who got away. Then there’s the small matter of Alex (Troy’s Rose Byrne) who never got over never getting Matthew in the first place, and decides it’s time to claim her prize. Where L’Appartement was a enthralling account of twisted morality and desire, Wicker Park is an unremarkable excursion through middle-class America, always promising a moment of impact that never occurs. Casting the eternally blank Hartnett was a mistake. Casting Matthew Lilliard as his best friend and comic relief was a bigger mistake. Only Australia’s Byrne brings any real presence to her character but it’s too little too late. The shocking developments which made the original so exciting are too much for these producers who leave McGuigan saddled with a neutered script and cast. He creates what he can from moody backdrops and disjointed timelines but Wicker Park is another example of why Hollywood should leave Europe alone. At best it’s a sweet love story of reclamation, at worst it’s a disastrously dull thriller. But most of the time it’s neither, and what a bore that turns out to be. // COLIN FRASER