Film of two halves

The bizarrely titled XX/XY turns out not really to be about gender at all.

Coles (Mark Ruffalo, excellent as always) is a laid-back, slightly gauche college kid who falls hard for fellow student Sam (Maya Stange).

Her attachment to her best friend, Thea (Kathleen Robertson) seems a little unhealthy, but that doesn't take us anywhere, because it's Coles, not his object(s) of desire, who interests writer/director Austin Chick.

Coles can say 'I love you' but doesn't know how to live the words, and since he can't say much else worth hearing, this turns into one of those endlessly talky films where the girl asks questions and the boy bats them back to her.

Like its title, it's filmed in two halves - we follow Coles and Sam from scuzzy student highs to politely tortured yuppiedom ten years down the line - and the filming itself is elliptical and snappy.

But Chick is no more in control of his narrative than Coles is of his love life, and the outcome is similarly disastrous.

XX/XY
Cert: cert15