The mere label ‘romantic comedy’ is enough to fill most blokes with dread. So the prospect of another offering from the writer of Wimbledon and Bridget Jones’s Diary 2 is unlikely to stop the rush towards any sign marked ‘Sky Sports Here’.

Admittedly, there’s an initial urge to get the beers in as cheeky cherub Maya (Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine herself) badgers her divorcing dad Will (Reynolds) into spilling the details of his love life. But give it a chance.

Since she’s only 10, Will makes his tale more palatable and adds a little mystery by giving his leading ladies different names. But which is Maya’s mum?

Is it Emily (Banks), the college sweetheart he left behind in 1992 to campaign for Bill Clinton in New York?

Or could it be feisty redhead Abigail (Fisher), whose photocopying skills and searing apathy spurred Will on to a political contribution beyond fetching toilet paper?

But maybe it’s Emily’s old friend Summer (Weisz), the aspiring journalist who loved Will like no one else… except her professor, a horny old cove called Hampton Roth (an on-form Kevin Kline, channelling Ernest Hemingway).

Over half a decade, Will lurches from one to the other, never quite sure when he’s in love, if he’s in love, or who he’s in love with.

It sounds like a diabetic shock waiting to happen. But by avoiding cliché and hovering over heartstrings rather than attacking them like a guitarist from Slipknot, Adam Brooks’ screenplay is a tonic for the sucrose-intolerant.

Allowing the humour to flow naturally, the undeniably cute cast is also smart enough to put the emphasis on ‘rom’ rather than ‘com’.

It proves that, with the right material, Reynolds can really turn on the charm and there’s more to Isla Fisher than the over-caffeinated bunny-boilers of Wedding Crashers and Wedding Daze.

The eclectic mix of 90s love songs – spanning folk, blues and soul to EMF, R.E.M. and Nirvana – will also elicit nostalgic sighs from anyone over 30.

Strange though, given the title and that a suitable alternative would be 'What’s The Story?', that there’s no Oasis on the soundtrack. Nevermind.

Elliott Noble