Casomai

By PETER CALDER

(Herald rating: * * * )

Slight, sweet and sporadically very charming, this Italian film riffs on the idea of marriage as a triumph of hope over experience, using a clever narrative frame that allows it - sometimes confusingly - to resort to both flashback and flash-forward.

The title, an Italian conjunction meaning "if by chance", captures the whimsical and wondering nature of a story that radiates from the wedding of yuppie couple Tommaso (Volo) and Stefania (Rocca).

We get a bit of a shock when the priest (Nunziate) calls a halt to ruminate on the dismal survival rate of the unions he has blessed, but this proves a jumping-off point for an amusing survey of the couple's past meeting, courtship and - more importantly - a glimpse of what will become of them. The film was a moderate hit in its native Italy among the stressed-out working parents whose lives it depicts.

The large cast functions simply to support the central couple, an extremely winning pair whose unaffected performances engage us early, and never let go.

The film is smartly lensed and snappily edited, and director D'Alatri deploys clever allegorical imagery with grace. The best is a recurring motif of a couple of skaters whose fluid co-operation is an unforced metaphor for the main relationship.

It recalls the 1980s sentimental television show thirtysomething, about yuppies learning to be adults, and it's occasionally hard to take the characters as seriously as they take themselves but it's a diverting romantic comedy with a soft heart.

CAST: Fabio Volo, Stefania Rocca, Gennaro Nunziate

DIRECTOR: Alessandro D'Alatri

RUNNING TIME: 113 mins

RATING: M (offensive language, sexual themes)

SCREENING: Academy