Aiming for the valentine's crowd comes an attempt to cash in on the popular formula, this time from relative newcomer Ol Parker. It comes complete with white, attractive, middle-class Londoners all swearing too much and bemoaning their broken hearts in their swanky apartments. But this time, there's one key twist to the boy meets girl formula... it's a girl meets girl thing.

Rachel (Piper Perabo) is getting married to Hector (Matthew Goode) and seems to be ready to take the leap. But as she walks down the aisle she spots Luce (Lena Headey), a florist who grabs Rachel's attention, yet she doesn't quite know why. As they become closer friends, Rachel discovers why Luce is uninterested in her attempts to match-make, Luce is a lesbian. Rachel begins to find a confusing attraction to Luce as her marriage starts to falter. But is it possible that Rachel could fall in love with another woman?

Despite the neat gimmick, Imagine Me & You is still hopelessly generic. Yes there's a wedding, yes there's the use of 'British' swear-words in place of actual jokes such as "arsing", "wanky" and "bastardy" (no, I've never used any of them before either), yes there's the precocious kid, yes there's the smug use of London locations and yes there are the 'hilariously' dysfunctional parents. And yes, this formula is starting to grate on me as well.

Without the strict adherence to the formula (oh - did I mention the climactic chase through traffic, coupled with the theme song?), there are some things to like here as well. It's all very slickly done and incredibly easy on the eye. There are some amusing moments and the girl meets girl storyline does lead to some interesting dilemmas. The theme of marriage being for second bests is frequently recurring and does provide for a bittersweet conclusion. The filmmakers don't turn Rachel's husband, played by Match Point's Matthew Goode, into an unlikeable character, making her infidelity all the more amoral.

American actress Piper Perabo doesn't have the charisma that would have elevated her into a memorable romantic lead but she does pin down the British accent effortlessly and at least does make her plight involving. Lena Headey is an appealing object of affection and her character rarely resorts to cliché. Oh apart from the 'lesbian bonding' scene which takes place at a football match where Headey teaches Perabo how to 'shout like a football hooligan'.

Oh those lesbians, aren't they butch. As previously mentioned one of my main problems is the tendency of the writer to be lazy and replace jokes with swearing. I'm not offended by bad language but just because someone says fuck or bugger, in an inventive way, I'm not automatically going to find it funny.

It will be interesting to see how Imagine Me & You will do in the box office. It is refreshing to see a lesbian romantic comedy treated like a mainstream movie, rather than an independent offering. The fact that its coupled by the familiar formula we all know and, uhum, love, will help its chances.

Depressingly, after the huge success of last year's Hitch it seems audiences aren't bothered by a romantic comedy which sticks to the rules, although it would be nice to see something truly different for once. But in the meantime this is an inoffensive and enjoyable time-waster.

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