JUST FRIENDS

Another report from the front lines of the relationship wars—and this time no one’s winning.

Freya Penrose, an expat Brit, has the right sort of trendy job managing a New York art gallery, and she’s not exactly single: Her dull but dependable lawyer lover let her move into his comfortable West Side apartment several months ago. But she’s on the nervous side of 30 and hoping for an engagement ring, even though she doesn’t really love Michael. He’s just not exciting enough for someone as sensitive, high-strung, and well educated as Freya. Even so, she’s taken aback when he announces that he doesn’t want to get married—at least not to her. Packing her bags, Freya heads for the downtown digs of her best friend, Jack Madison III, a handsome, womanizing writer who manages to live on the trust fund allowance his rich but controlling father doles out. Jack’s first novel was a bestseller, but he can’t seem to get started on his second, and having the lithe and lovely Freya ensconced in his cramped apartment, however temporarily, is a distraction. Jack consoles himself with Candace, a 22-year-old student in his creative writing seminar, while Freya, tiptoeing into the dating scene once more, makes a play for Brett, a buff, ridiculously self-absorbed young actor. If Michael can find true love (in the arms of her best friend Cat de Fillipo, to add insult to injury), why can’t she? Looks like Jack will have to escort her to her stepsister Tasha’s upcoming wedding in England, even though Freya has a feeling the scheming Tasha just might be preparing to sink her elegant claws into the ever-ready and none-too-particular Jack. But beggars can’t be choosers . . .

Well-written romantic comedy from Sisman (Special Relationship, 1995, etc.), but the sophisticated tone doesn’t disguise the overfamiliar plot or the emotional emptiness of her people.