Sixty-something serial seducer Harry Sanborn (Nicholson) is an old dog happy with his old tricks and terrified of the C-word - commitment.

With a track record that makes Rod Stewart look like a pensioner eking out his twilight years in an Eastbourne retirement home, he likes things as they are.

However, when he drives up to New York's exclusive Hamptons for a weekend with his latest young and springy infatuation Marin (Peet) age catches up with him.

When he develops chest pains, he's told to recuperate at the home of Marin's mum Erica (Keaton), a divorced playwright nearly his own age.

Assured, cynical and world-weary, Eric has no time for Harry's philandering ways and remains unimpressed by his credentials as a streetwise record label boss.

"Some people see hip-hop as poetry," he tells her. "How many words can you rhyme with 'bitch'," she replies.

However, left alone, the pair find they have more in common that they might think and a spark develops between them.

Of course, it's not that simple and romantic complications arise when Erica is also pursued by Harry's 30-something doctor and theatre buff Julian (Reeves).

If you're fed up with a constant drip-feed of anaemic college romances featuring identikit valley girls, then this could be what you've been waiting for.

Nicholson winningly plays against type as the sort of non-PC juggernaut you'd love to see crashing through a Guardian editorial meeting like a runaway tank.

Both he and Keaton are well served by Meyers' literate, witty script. "I have never lied to you," he tells her. "I have always told you some variation of the truth."

Reeves is given a nicely deprecatory role while Paul Michael Glaser as Keaton's husband shows there's more to him than driving into piles of boxes in Starsky & Hutch.

If there's one criticism it is that the narrative follows the well-worn diversions and switchbacks of standard rom-com fare. But with a script and performances like these, you don't really care.

For those suffering withdrawal symptoms of decent Woody Allen, you could do a lot worse then get a fix of this.

Tim Evans