"You never know what you've lost 'til it's gone" goes the classic ditty. And too late Manhattan playboy Tom (Dempsey) realises they're singing his song.

He's a stubbled bon viveur who roars around Manhattan in an open-top sports car effortlessly eliciting phone numbers from honeys in cafes where he's ordered incredibly complicated lattes.

But after a no-strings tumble - his cardinal (carnal?) rule is "no back-to-backs": ie nothing permanent - he scores his emotional fix from art historian and platonic best buddy Hannah (Monaghan).

He's getting the best of both worlds...until she is sent to Scotland by her art gallery and runs into Kevin McKidd's Scottish aristocrat and is swept off her feet. They pencil in a wedding date.

Tom - who Hannah has asked to be one of her four Maids of Honour - realises too late that he's in danger of losing his soulmate and puts in place a plan to woo her back. But has he left it too late?

This is one of those inoffensive rom-coms where the plot mechanics fall into place with a numbing sense of predictability.

Its main comedy strengths lie outside the main plot, principally Tom's serial marrying dad (Sydney Pollack, no less) hooking up with a string of pneumatic goldiggers.

Dempsey - who is enjoying a revival worthy of Lazarus - strikes the right balance between innocent and rogue and even gets the chance to show off his juggling skills (it pays to have a fallback from the precarious whims of the acting profession. Patrick should know).

You get the feeling that rom-coms aren't exactly a challenge for the talented Monaghan while the Scotland portrayed here is the variety gracing a million tins of shortbread.

It's a magic place of shimmering lochs, ancient, brooding castles, unintelligible accents and sunny-natured Celtic supporters. Visit Scotland will be toasting the movie with the finest malt.

The pre-ordained outcome has all the likelihood of the desperate Dempsey donning a mini kilt and tossing a caber onto a Triumph Stag. He does.

Tim Evans