At Middleton

A university open day. George has brought his daughter and Edith her son to look round the campus. As the group tour starts the two of them get bored and slip away. They wander the campus together: they steal a bicycle, sit in on an acting class, sit on a lawn and talk. Both are married. When the day ends they will collect their children and go. Adam Rodgers directs. Andy García plays George and Vera Farmiga plays Edith. García is also among the producers. The structure is limited to one day and to one place, the campus. The narrative keeps that limit deliberately and never steps outside it. The template is familiar and the film does not hide it, leaning on the known instances of stories about two strangers who become close in a short time. The tone is kept light. Neither is content with their life, and the film does not build that as a crisis; the relationship does not go anywhere physical and the matter is a day's escape. The children's strand is the second layer; their tour of the university runs parallel to their parents' truancy, and the comparison is the film's best idea. The rapport between Vera Farmiga and Andy García carries it; the scenes stand up even where the writing is weak. Who it is for: viewers who like calm American independent romantic drama. Who it is not for: the narrative is predictable, the dialogue is artificial in places, and the ending goes where it is expected to.