Juliet, Naked

Stars: Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Chris O'Dowd, Lily Brazier, Ayoola Smart, Enzo Cilenti, Pamela Lyne, Denise Gough, Phil Davis

Director: Jesse Peretz

Various novels by Nick Hornby, starting with Fever Pitch and including About a Boy and A Long Way Down, have been turned into successful films.

This time, despite the fact that it took three screenwriters to adapt his novel for the screen and also despite hard work by the cast, notably Byrne, who gives a memorable performance, the result is a romcom that very rarely rises above the level of an average made-for-television movie.

The show opens in an English seaside town (well played by Broadstairs) where Byrne is wedged in a long-term relationship with media-professor O'Dowd who is obsessed with s minor American singer-songwriter who vanished some 25 years previously.

Cue the sudden reappearance of the rocker, rockily played by Hawke. Then, catalysed by O'Dowd's infidelity, Byrne gets to meet Hawke after a lengthy online correspondence; he comes to London and...well, you can probably figure out how the rest of the story, complicated by Hawke's past and continuing rocky relationships as he tries to re-bond with his extended family, continues.

By and large the film, mildly directed by Perez, did little to grab my attention or impress itself on my memory.

Alan Frank

USA/UK 2018. UK Distributor: Universal. Colour.
93 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 1, Swearing 3.

Review date: 15 Mar 2019

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