On paper, the opening of writer and director Jamie Adams’ She Is Love fits the formula of any number of cheap, made-for-TV romantic comedies. Patricia (a flame-haired Haley Bennett, last seen in Joe Wright’s Cyrano) is being whisked along the country lanes of Cornwall, unenthusiastically listening to a voicemail from her boyfriend back home in New York in which he’s wishing her luck for her big meeting. She’s wearing the wrong shoes for the beach and isn’t impressed by the boutique hotel she’s been booked into: a historic house without a lift for your luggage. Typical. She seems destined to find love with a strapping local hunk, give up the New York rat race and settle into Cornish quiet life. But the man with whom sparks actually fly is her ex-husband and former rocker Idris (Sam Riley), coincidentally staying in the hotel for the weekend with ditzy new girlfriend Louise (Marisa Abela).

What unfolds is a tonal hodgepodge of intense indie drama à la Blue Valentine, awkward humour and even a musical number, all by way of the trappings of quirky rom-coms circa 2008 — especially an irritatingly twee score. Jamie Adams’ trademark style is loose and improvisational, and the film was reportedly shot in only six days. Unfortunately, it shows. A lean runtime and shapeless narrative deprive the characters of any real interiority and, despite strong performances from the central trio, Patricia and Idris never seem to resemble real human beings, even as a drinking session brings old affection and resentment to the fore.

Most enjoyable are the scenes when Bennett and Riley can let their mutual musical talents shine, whether in a silly song about their failed marriage or a heartfelt drunken duet of ‘Danny Boy’. “I like you now you’re dead” says Patricia to Idris as they cake each other in white ghost-face paint, but She Is Love never really comes to life.