Cast: Brendan Patricks, Namie Harris, Kelly Adams

Director: Julian Kemp

Writer: Julian Kemp (screenplay); Alain de Botton (novel)

Analysing the narrative by which someone’s life led up to a suicide attempt is, perhaps, an odd premise for a ‘comedy’, but then it is in our nature to laugh at the unlucky and find humour in someone else’s misfortune.  Said attempt though is the starting point for Julian Kemp’s comedy, in which Duncan (newcomer Brendan Patricks) casts an eye back over (of course!) the five failed relationships that led him to the brink.

Based on Alain de Bottin’s Essays In Love, My Last Five Girlfriends follows Duncan the architect whose love life has gone a little awry. Part Simon Pegg, part Hugh Grant, yet rarely as funny or charming as either, his relationship review takes us through the wreckage of his romantic entanglements as he tries to figure out where it went wrong and why. Presented in a self-referential manner as Duncan ‘pauses’ the story and delivers asides and observations to camera, Kemp employs all manner of surreal and whimsical tools (a fun-fare ride through Duncan’s love life, his exes portrayed as themed ride) to spruce up what is a fairly conventional story – the girl that broke Duncan’s heart, the relationships he found solace in afterwards, and the girl that seemed to make everything up that point feel like nothing short of destiny.

Inventively presented and with some warm performances then, particularly newcomer Patricks and Naomie Harris as one of the titular five, Girlfriends finds a comfortable tone with its light-hearted but never throwaway approach to Duncan’s story. Like a pal recounting his woes over a pint, it finds the right balance and never trivialises events nor blows them out of proportion. Duncan himself though, no doubt intended to be a loveable little scamp comes across as self-pitying and self-obsessed, the issues in all of his relationships viewed from one perspective only, and it’s not that of the women with whom he is at various points involved. The ‘five’ themselves are rarely presented with any depth of characterisation, instead it’s quirks, traits, and their relationship to a particular stage in Duncan’s own romantic journey which appear to be their defining characteristics, although Harris’ Gemma does fair better as the most developed and rounded of the titular five.

The film ultimately struggles to find an emotional depth to match the winningly effervescent presentation. It handles the gimmicks and gags but flounders when searching for anything truly meaning to say other than, “love is complicated, and unpredictable,� which most of us will have already realised all by ourselves.

By Alasdair Morton

My Last Five Girlfriends is released 26^th March via Paramount.