La Buche, screenwriter Danile Thompson's directorial debut, is the kind of women's picture Hollywood can't do anymore without submerging it in life-affirming sentiment, writes David Parkinson.

There will be clichd characters in any ensemble piece, but rarely will they be as well played as they are here.

Everyone impresses, from Charlotte Gainsbourg's lonely career girl and Emmanuelle Bart's jilted model housewife to their pregnant singer sister Sabine Azma and her indecisive married lover, Jean-Pierre Darrousin. There's a real sense of family fashioned around Franoise Fabian and Claude Rich and, though the episodes seem mundane, they vibrate with a wit and warmth that's both identifiable and affecting.