Despite some very talented actors doing their level best and lending what substance they can, this is a pretty leaden and unconvincing film, further hampered by a cheesy and intrusive musical score.

No less a figure than Harvey Keitel has a cameo as Demi, an ageing married businessman with a beautiful girlfriend, Amber (Sibilla Deen). When he dies suddenly, it is Demi’s faithful driver Donald, stolidly played by Gabriel Byrne, whose job it is to clear away any evidence of this illicit relationship. But in doing so he befriends Amber – as two lonely souls they are drawn together – and gets drawn into her fraught life, which involves a violently abusive ex-husband who, to Amber’s horror, is now about to be married off to her shy kid sister as part of their dynastic family politics.

All this could have been interesting, with a sharp role for Mark Addy as Donald’s brother-in-law and a brief appearance from Gina McKee as his ex-wife. But the drama feels wooden and unrelaxed.