- guardian.co.uk,
- Friday May 09 2008 10:29 BST
This final film by actor turned director Adrienne Shelly isn't quite as toe-curling as TV's Pushing Daisies, but it is an over-sweet concoction built around a thin rom-com between pie-shop employee Keri Russell and doctor Nathan Fillion.
They're both married, but not to each other, and since Russell is given a needy, nerdy husband with no redeeming qualities, and Fillion's wife remains largely unseen, there's not much in the way of moral dilemmas or conflict to resolve, leaving us with a rather wan romance enlivened by a few moments of charm between Russell and her co-workers, Shelly (also writer-director) and Cheryl Hines (Larry David's screen wife on TV) and a welcome cameo for veteran Andy Griffith.
As an actor, Shelly was quirky but charming in Hal Hartley's early films The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, now oddly forgotten and rarely seen. She didn't look much different here, in her sixth movie as an indie writer-director, but the quirkiness has congealed somewhat. Sadly, the 40-year-old was murdered at her home in New York by a would-be robber in 2006.
