You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching an extended episode of Friends when first meeting Adam, Evelyn, Jenny and Philip.

Geeky English student Adam (Rudd) and artistic bohemian Evelyn (Weisz) are in the first flush of a relationship.

They first met when Adam, who was working as a museum security guard, just manages to stop Evelyn defacing a statue with a paint spray.

Despite being diametric opposites - she a free spirit and he a nerdish undergraduate - they bond and are soon guilty of PDAs - Public Displays of Affection.

Introduced to Adam's soon-to-be-married friends Jenny (Mol) and Philip (Weller), the off-kilter Evelyn doesn't quite fit in.

She's stealthily changing the way Adam looks - getting his hair cut, his nails done and even persuading him to go under the knife to get his nose sorted.

As the reconstruction continues apace, Adam finds himself reacting to his new look and style, drawing on his newfound reserves of confidence.

LaBute uses the original cast from the staging of the source play at London's Almeida Theatre...and it shows.

Literally a four-hander, it's a very stagey movie, so much so you sometimes can almost sense the actors finding their marks on the big screen.

That said, once the characters have bedded in, the narrative rolls neatly along to a denouement that really pulls the rug from under you.

Weisz is a revelation as the calculating artist and Rudd sublimely nails the tics and mannerisms of a gauche student unsure of himself.

A provocative piece of cinema, it also redresses the balance of the sexes LaBute so controversially tipped in his debut In The Company of Men.

Tim Evans