The fifth Danish picture to adhere to the 1995 cinematic Vow Of Chastity is as contrived as any of the previous Dogme outings. Yet because it deals so warmly and wittily with the everyday lives of ordinary people in a Copenhagen suburb, it's easy to forgive the calculation of its coincidences and the odd longeur.
Lone Scherfig handles her eager ensemble with fine democracy, ensuring equal attention is paid to the blossoming relationships between the disparate lonely hearts at an evening class. But her greater achievement is to use the misgivings and misunderstandings of the timid hotel clerk, widowed pastor, vibrant waitress, clumsy bakery assistant, passionate hairdresser and uncouth cafe boss to explore the complexity of interaction, the power of language and the need for faith, even in an increasingly secular world.