If your boyfriend or girlfriend absent-mindedly mentioned a hitherto unknown old flame, what would your reaction be?

A frisson of jealousy, maybe, followed by a dismissive shrug of the shoulders and then back to what you were doing before.

That would be the rational reaction. However, Stacy (Murphy) holds with the dubious theory that "omission is betrayal" and is so traumatised by what she perceives as a sort of retro-threat that she takes action.

This involves trawling through boyfriend Derek's electronic organiser and teeing up meetings with the three exes from his earlier life to check out if what he says about them is true.

So, without revealing who she is, Stacy wins the confidence of pin-up Lulu (Josie Maran), gynaecologist Rachel (Rashida Jones) and chef Joyce (Julianne Nicholson).

Excessive? Just a little. And a bit weird. Creepy even. And very clingy. She even gets to anonymously interview them as part of a job as a TV producer on a Tricia-style trailer trash show.

A decent little film is struggling to get out of this thoroughly silly offering - but it lies buried under a mound of sentimentality and melodrama.

There's some sharp observation of the pompous self-importance of telly folk and daytime TV's obsession with "issues" such as bulimia - "We'll do lunch…then throw up!"

The dialogue's not bad either. "John Lennon said life is what happens while you're making other plans". To which Stacy's indignant reply is: "Then he got shot."

However, Murphy is not a comfortable comedienne while Holly Hunter as her TV mentor Barb drawls more like Jimmy Stewart with every film she makes.

Quite a decent set up is totally squandered when the closing section of the movie sags into a tear-fest of self-pity.

By the end the only thing that could get worse would be a cameo appearance from a raddled old celeb. Cue Carly Simon.

Tim Evans