The circle begins with Tommy Reilly, a onetime wannabe writer who became the producer of a weekly television entertainment news show by design rather than choice, and has stayed with it for the money rather than any professional satisfaction.

Dumped by his live-in girlfriend without warning, he temporarily moves in with colleague Carpo, an aging Lothario ready to offer unlimited — and sometimes useless — romantic advice.

Maria's ex-husband, who longs to reconcile with her, is Benjamin Bazler, an apartment house doorman and aspiring songwriter whose obsession is 1960s/1970s rock music.

He shares his dream of becoming a full-time musician with Iowa transplant Ashley, an NYU student working as a coffee shop waitress to support herself.

If it's not especially funny, it is appealingly good-humored, and the actors perform well within the limitations of the script ... [Burns] deserves credit for avoiding the sudsy happily-ever-after clichés that deform so many contemporary romantic comedies.

"[7] In Variety, Scott Foundas called the film "not just instantly forgettable, but beginning to fade from memory even as its images still play across the screen" and one "seized by fitful bouts of hilarity and charm," a picture whose "overall impression is one of overindulgence and underimagination - a sponge cake without the yeast.

"[8] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said: "In the world of this picture, just about everything people do with their clothes on is a sham, or at best some lame diversion between the spasms of real life that take place only in a bedroom.

"[9] In USA Today, Mike Clark rated the film two out of a possible four stars, and commented: "Any goodwill the performers build up is quickly shot down by the incessant interviews, which restate the obvious when they're not showing how self-delusional some of these characters are.