"There's no room for honesty in a healthy relationship" are words that come back to haunt feckless lothario Coles (Ruffalo).

When we first meet him he's a predatory womaniser who fixes on fellow student Sam (Stange)and successfully moves in on her at a college party.

Hardly a shrinking violet, she invites the Freddie Mercury lookalike to join her and her buddy Thea (Robertson) in a three-in-a-bed romp.

After this touching start to the fledgling romance, Coles and Sam become an item but eveything falls apart in collision of mistrust and resentment (especially when Sam catches Coles and Thea at it).

Fast-forward ten years and Coles is a successful animator for an unpleasant advertising company and in a long-standing relationship with Claire (Petra Wright).

Sam returns to New York from London after breaking off her engagement and Thea is married to a successful restaurateur.

After a chance meeting, Coles find his love for his old flame reignited...but is he still the irresponsible serial seducer of old?

Chick has put together a compelling relationship movie with strong characters well played by a decent cast.

He's particularly strong on creating the carefree bed-hopping musical chairs of student life and its metamorphosis into adult maturity.

Ruffalo plays Coles as a far from sympathetic romeo - an evasive, sniggering pain in the neck.

There's some nice touches, especially a student demanding his cinema ticket cost back from Coles after suffering the rookie director's first effort.

An admirer of the film-maker Claire Denis (there's an arch reference to her work), this is in fact a far more attractive effort than the French director's recent outings.

Tim Evans