Love is a precious thing. Especially that new, gooey kind of love. You know the type, when it’s all a bit giddy, and you can’t help but look into each other’s eyes, even if the TV is on. Only two things ruin this feeling: time and proximity.

Let’s face it, as the years roll on, spending time with your partner can feel like you’re involved in some hideously long care in the community programme. If that doesn’t kill your relationship, distance will. Even with the technological advances allowing web chats or free calls, long distance relationships just don’t work out. This film is the perfect example as to why not.

Garrett (Justin Long) is a scout for a music label, living in the big apple. On the night he gets dumped by a girlfriend he ends up meeting Erin (Drew Barrymore). She’s an intern for a newspaper and a pretty dab hand at playing arcade classic Centipede.

And just like so many celluloid couples before them, the pair fall in love under the spell of NYC. On the surface, it looks like the perfect relationship; the type that if you saw them fawning over each other in public would probably make you sick. Yes, that much in love.

There is a looming love-retardant spanner however, hovering above both their heads, ready to be thrown into the works. Erin is only in New York for six weeks; if the paper she’s working for decide not to hire her, she has to return home to San Francisco, 3,000 miles away. As it turns out, that’s exactly what happens, and Garrett and Erin soon find themselves the lonely slices at the ends of a long distance sandwich. But can their love conquer all, including said long distance sandwich?

Mostly known for her documentary work (including The Kid Stays in the Picture and American Teen), this is Nanette Burstein’s first foray into the mainstream, with this romantic comedy. Unlike many other recent entries into this genre, this certainly has more of an indie, low-key vibe about it.

Despite Barrymore’s starry attachment, the rest of the cast are a bunch of relative unknowns. Even though her romantic co-star Long has a familiar face, this is the first time he’s taken on a male lead role – unless you count voicing Alvin in all the Alvin and the Chipmunks films, which we don’t.

Their relationship has an honest ring about it, free as it is from an overbearing Hollywood sheen. Sure they have cool jobs, but at least both are on the bottom rung of the media ladder. In fact Erin is a thirtysomething who put her whole life on hold for a previous relationship, which explains why she’s a little late to her particular career party.

Even Garrett’s friends Dan (Charlie Day) and Box (Jason Sudeikis) have an earthiness about them, with a relationship that has a certain realism about it, and feels less lifted from the pages of your average Hollywood rom-com script.

Barrymore also has a good rapport with Christina Applegate, who plays her sister Corinne. It feels, well, sisterly, which is nice.

Where the film embarrasses itself the most is during its set pieces; they all concern getting caught in promiscuous positions and just feel completely and unnecessarily crowbarred into proceedings. They let themselves down and the film. Burstein should have just trusted her instincts, and kept true to documentary roots and not gone overboard on the Hollywood clichés.

Where she gets a gold star however is allowing Barrymore – who it has to be said, is getting more of a touch of the Katherine Hepburn about her the older she gets – and her co-star Long to emote on a genuinely touching level throughout. They carry the heart of the film and for the most part they do a swell job.

It’s just a shame that Burstein had to resort to ending on such a sour note, with her crowbar sponsored by Hollywood clichés in hand once again. Although her clunky efforts don’t spoil the tone of the film completely, it does leave audiences feeling like they’ve just had a fun if slightly awkward one night stand experience, instead of anything more long term and meaningful.