Those expecting Syriana (or indeed Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September) are going to be disappointed with this stubbornly arty, leisurely plotted offering.

Argentinean writer/director Amigorena aims for black comedy and existential chic, but his meandering script hits few targets.

Binoche enjoys playing against type as a zesty, gun-toting, turtle loving secret agent attempting to reconcile with the mysterious, bizarrely blond Nolte, who may hold vital information on the impending September 11 atrocities.

Using 9/11 as a story hook could provoke cries of bad taste but this treads so lightly it is unlikely to offend.

Amigorena is happier making clever-clever jokes on the fractious relationship of the American brother (Brit Riley making a good stab at the accent) and French sister Orlando (Perfume’s Forestier), than focussing on the World Trade Center.

Audiences may be more irked at the underdeveloped incest sub-plot Amigorena slips into the film late in the day.

Action comes courtesy of John Turturro’s bizarre spook, the very English named William Pound.

A poetry spouting, Freudian hitman who (in a gimmick nicked from Grosse Pointe Blank) calls his shrink before neutralizing a target, Turturro provides the most unintentionally funny moments, despite his penchant for vicious executions.

Amigorena has an eye for off-kilter camerawork and attractively shoots Paris and Venice as Binoche and the two twenty-somethings flee Turturro, but its existentialist musings and breezy road movie charm are no replacement for espionage movie brains.

Rob Daniel