91Èȱ¬

Over-praised and over here, Me And You And Everyone We Know is a half-charming, half-irritating American indie drama about a single father, Richard (John Hawkes), falling in love with a performance artist (Miranda July). It's funny in parts, Hawkes is impressively sad and July has an otherworldly quality, but her direction and script is cloyingly quirky and not even half as profound as it thinks it is. Just when you're waiting for the film to get started, it finishes.

"You know, some kids don't even have one home. You get to have two!" says Richard, trying to help his children look on the bright side of his break-up with their mother. It's not hard to see how he could be irritating to live with, or why his kids evidently think their dad more pathetic than most. But there's a decency to him beyond the limpness and you have to feel for anyone who could commit the act of desperate stupidity he manages in the first scene.

"NOT REMOTELY BELIEVABLE"

Beyond his misplaced attempts to relate to his children, there are the children themselves - gazing at him blankly and surfing the internet for bizarre sex chatroom exchanges. This could be regarded as controversial if it weren't so ridiculous: as is the exchange between Hawkes' chubby neighbour and two curious schoolgirls. It's funny, in questionable taste, and not remotely believable. Which might serve as a one-line review for the whole film. Click with it and there are elements to enjoy, but the title suggests a universal significance the film can't supply.