When the daughter of Ben and JoJo dies in a shooting they keep her memory alive by tacitly adopting her intended - Joe (Gyllenhaal).

Unable to accept she is gone, Ben (Hoffman) slumps into a deep pit of denial while JoJo (Sarandon) uses her cynicism to act as a shield against the loss.

Joe, pliable and undemonstrative, is happy to be the man everyone believes him to be - bereaved husband-to-be and dutiful would-be son-in-law.

However, it's an artificial state of affairs that cannot lumber on indefinitely...and sparky Bertie Knox (Pompeo) is the breath of fresh air that brings the edifice tumbling down.

Drawing on personal experience, Silberling has crafted a thoroughly believable and engrossing drama from the most unpromising subject matter.

Hoffman is superb as the failed businessman and father blundering on as if nothng has happened, while Sarandon is acidly sharp as his intuitive wife.

However, it's Gyllenhaal who brings the whole enterprise to life as the young man torn between fulfilling the role of the bereaved and following his heart.

There's a darkly comic tone to the narrative, the highpoint of which is Joe's adoption of estate agent-speak to glibly relate the practical inconveniences of a death.

Even a court-room sub-plot, which in lesser movies would be a distraction, takes its place as a valid component of the whole.

Pompeo brings an air of vulnerable vitality to her role as Joe's new love without recourse to Bullock-style kookiness.

It's a film of wry observations, as opposed to grand gestures, and it unashamedly appeals to the heart as well as working the funny bone.

And it's moonlight miles better than you might expect.

Tim Evans