The first 10 minutes of this film are hilarious, with diminutive Janeane Garofalo in her element as a radio vet dispensing witty and uproarious advice to pet-obsessed (and distressed) callers.

All too soon, though, this potentially smart, warm and funny number loses its way, descending through misunderstandings and embarrassments into sloppy romantic comedy.

As the vet who falls for one of her (human) radio patients, stand-up comic Garofalo shows great promise as an offbeat leading lady.

And Uma Thurman could also hardly be better as the dizzy blonde neighbour forced to assume Garofalo's identity after the latter has had a panic attack about her looks.

Thurman finds herself hard-put to avoid falling for Garofalo's knight in shining armour (rather stickily played by British actor Ben Chaplin), although you'll known complications like these were made to be straightened out in a conventional girl-gets-boy finale.