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If the three-way writing credit she shared with director Richard Linklater and co-star Ethan Hawke for the wonderful Before Sunset left room for doubt about Julie Delpy's ability as a screenwriter, 2 Days In Paris is proof that she's a serious talent in her own right. Delpy also stars, directs and provides the music for this playful comedy, which shows off her wicked sense of humour and a real understanding of relationships.

The set-up is similar to the walk-and-talk intimacy of Before Sunrise and Sunset, following a couple (Delpy and Adam Goldberg), she a Parisian, he a New Yorker, as they spend a weekend in her home town. However, it's a little while before the company of these two lovers becomes a pleasure. With her black-rimmed geek glasses and semi-neurotic monologues and his hypochondriac whinging, Marion (Delpy) and Jack (Goldberg) are conceited Woody Allen wannabes, ie, incredibly annoying. And here Delpy shows what a great writer she is, because very soon Marion and Jack are also wonderful company. Delpy's lines are witty, a little vulgar, but most of all real. It's impossible not to like these characters for their verisimilitude.

"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO LIKE THESE CHARACTERS"

If explanation were needed for Delpy's knack for honest human ribaldry, look no further than her mum and dad, Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, who are charmingly awful as Marion's earthy bourgeois parents. A Frenchwoman based in America, Julie Delpy is admirably unbiased in poking fun at both peoples - Americans are ignorant and repressed, the French are racist snobs - but she saves her best insights for male/female relationships, with Marion and Jack a genuinely memorable comic duo.

2 Days In Paris is out in the UK on 31st August 2007.