Dir: Lisa Krueger. US. 2000. 98 mins.

Prod co: Miramax Films. US dist: Miramax Films. Int'l sales: Miramax International (1) 212 219 4100. Prods: Dean Silvers, Marlen Hecht. Exec prods: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jonathan Gordon, Amy Slotnick. Scr: Lisa Krueger. DoP: Tom Krueger. Prod des: Sharon Lomofsky. Ed: Curtis Clayton, Colleen Sharp. Mus: Calexico. Main cast: Heather Graham, Casey Affleck, Luke Wilson, Goran Visnic, Patricia Velasquez, Alfonso Arau, Mark Ruffalo, Clea Du Vall, Summer Phoenix, Mary Kay Place, Dylan Baker.

Critical response was mixed to Lisa Krueger's follow-up to Manny And Lo when it premiered in competition at this year's Sundance Film Festival. When Committed opens domestically through Miramax on April 28, its biggest chance of making an impact will be from publicity based around its star, Heather Graham. Having stepped onto a new level of fame last year with The Spy Who Shagged Me and Bowfinger, she should stimulate interest if reviewers are indifferent.

Graham is enormously appealing in the central role of what is otherwise merely a featherweight conceit dressed up in magic realist trappings and confident direction by Krueger. Distributors everywhere will need to get Graham's face onto magazine covers to draw attention to this slight movie in a marketplace about to become choked with heavyweights.

The young star plays Joline, a self-possessed New York night-club owner who is always true to her word, has faith in others and is totally committed to the marriage vows she has pledged to husband Carl (Luke Wilson). However, when Carl fails to return from a photographic assignment, sending word that he needs space to find himself, the relentless Joline sets out in a rental car to Texas, where she instinctively believes him to be.

Once there, she indeed finds him and keeps a close watch without revealing her presence. She also makes new friends, including Carl's new girlfriend Carmen (Velasquez), her medicine-man grandfather (Arau) and a handsome neighbour (Visnic). Affleck plays her brother Jay, who joins her in El Paso and falls for Carmen.