Hampstead

Set in the well-to-do London district, this socially conscious trifle sees a weary American widow (Diane Keaton) put aside her financial woes to take up the cause of a shack-dwelling curmudgeon (Brendan Gleeson), whose home on Hampstead Heath is being threatened by developers. Loosely based on a true story, but with added romance, Hampstead takes inspiration from Richard Curtis and Nancy Meyers but comes courtesy of Joel Hopkins (Last Chance Harvey). Unlike Notting Hill, it knows its onions when it comes to the character of its location, capturing the area's village ambience and uneasy mix of do-gooders and the abrasively affluent, while the gentrification theme is contemporary and pertinent. If the leads are well cast, the film is terribly nervous about their burgeoning relationship, a lack of confidence that's infectious, and the absence of spark in both script and execution is disappointing, too. In fact, considering this almost soporifically gentle romantic comedy delivers on neither the romance nor comedy front, it doesn't so much stumble as never really gets off the ground.