Take three couples, add a touch of salsa music and a bit of sexual chit-chat from two taxi drivers and what do you have. A typical British movie. But there's nothing wrong with that.

After all, when we get it right even Hollywood takes note. So don't be surprised if Born Romantic follows in the footsteps of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Little Voice and, of course, Billy Elliot.

The Full Monty revisited? Almost

The BBC certainly hopes so. After the world-wide success of the tap-dancing Billy they've pinned their faith in director and writer David Kane, who's last film This Year's Love did pretty well at the box office.

The trouble with Born Romantic, however, is it's too British for it's own good. It's hardly filled with stately homes and period costumes. And while Billy Elliot may have struck a cord in the States, this is just too grimy for the Yanks to take to their bosom.

It is great, though, for spotting stars who you've seen before and can't remember where. So keep your eyes peeled for her out of Smack the Pony, the bit of rough from Pure Wickedness, Cheryl from The Royle Family and the guy from the Fast Show and Cold Feet.

Wonder who'll get off with Ricky Martin?

Born Romantic is about a range of disparate people who's lives are somehow brought together. This is thanks greatly to the Salsa Club the majority attend.

The characters are hardly loveable. There's the petty thief who chloroforms his victims, the grave tender with a desire to know more about grotesque diseases and Mo (Jane Horrocks) who sleeps around in order to find the love she desires.

Surprise, surprise they all pair off in the end. It's giving nothing away to say the tone of the finished piece is upbeat.

Given the squalid conditions and hum drum lives the majority of the characters seem to live, this is too much to ask for. There should have been at least one downer.

While the performances are excellent and the script witty enough to make the cinema audience laugh out loud, there's a sense this type of film has been done once too often.

Because it has that BBC Film title attached to it, you can't help wondering whether it could have been done just as much justice by being made into a TV series along the lines of the corporation's recent Hearts and Bones.

That series also brought a group of people together and used them to jump off into different storylines. To that extent Born Romantic has the notion of repeat written all over it (or as the BBC would like to say, "here's another chance to see.").