Juliet, Naked

The curator of a small-time English museum (Rose Byrne) breaks up with her neglectful, philandering boyfriend (Chris O’Dowd)—then, as luck would have it, strikes up an email flirtation with the reclusive American rocker (Ethan Hawke) who is the focus of her ex’s Internet obsession. The script by Evgenia Peretz, Jim Taylor and Tamara Reynolds (from Nick Hornby’s novel) is a bit aimless, perhaps, but amiable, and we enjoy this look at small-city English life. Jesse Peretz’s direction smooths out any wrinkles in the text, and the movie draws a nervous, energetic charm from Byrne’s performance (she somehow makes her character humdrum and luminous at the same time). In fact, all three leads are in good form, especially O’Dowd, who gives the discarded boyfriend’s pathetic fixation a kind of hangdog dignity.