For the first five minutes, Wicker Park suggests a pacy, sub-Frantic thriller with Josh Hartnett doing his best Harrison Ford impression. Alas, Paul McGuigan's destiny-themed mystery swiftly loses its way, trading Hitchcockian intrigue for sappy, unconvincing melodrama.
A remake of tricksy Vincent Cassel favourite L'Appartement, Wicker sees McGuigan amping up the style as Hartnett's soon-to-be-spliced suit risks all to track down his long-lost love (Diane Kruger) during a frenetic few days in New York. His quest is complicated by the possibly malign involvement of another Troy babe, Rose Byrne, whose precise role in the proceedings is either inspired or preposterous, depending on your point of view and level of alertness.
Tortuously twisting in on itself, Wicker Park keeps you guessing as it keeps its central pair apart. But it's scuppered by a plodding obviousness that's underlined by a sledgehammer soundtrack, the closing credits even being accompanied by Coldplay's plaintive `The Scientist'.
