People who like this film may feel smug for doing so and who could blame them. This is that rarest of rare things, an American romantic comedy about young people that could have been directed by Eric Rohmer. It's full of talk and it's all highly intelligent, at times almost unbearably so, but the young writer/director Whit Stillman has a wonderful ear for a bon mot and he doesn't take things seriously. He lampoons these smart young New Yorkers but he doesn't despise them; the comedy is gentle and affectionate.<br /><br />It's set among the well-heeled New York débutante set as they embark on a roundelay of parties over the Christmas period. It owes a considerable debt to Jane Austen and acknowledges this by referencing her as often as it can. Another reference point, of course, is Woody Allen when Allen was writing and directing genuinely smart New York comedies. It's even got a nerdy Woody Allen character in the form of Taylor Nichols' pseudo-intellectual.<br /><br />Indeed if it has a weakness it's that the boys are far better developed as characters than the girls and in a good, fine, unknown young cast the best performances come from Edward Clements as the hero from the wrong side of the tracks, or in this case, the wrong side of the city and from Chris Eigeman as the handsome, verbose rich boy who befriends him, (think "Emma" with the sexes changed). A little gem of a movie.