As I was watching The Boy Downstairs this question kept popping into my head. The lead character is an aspiring writer, Diana, whose day-to-day job is as a retail assistant in a wedding dress store. Yet she has a gorgeous apartment in a respectable part of New York. So how does she afford it? It is a small detail but highlights my overall issue with this enjoyable but slight drama. Directed by an accomplished Sophie Brooks, who makes her debut here, this likeable film nevertheless falls into the 'New York, I love you' tropes.

Diana has returned to New York after spending some time in London. She moves into an apartment block that happens to contain her ex-boyfriend, Ben, and is soon having awkward encounters with him. The film then switches to two timelines as it also chronicles the couple in happier times, including meet-cutes, dates, and brunch with Diana's dad. It is refreshing to see a film explore the aftermath of a break-up and The Boy Downstairs manages to find enough interesting material to remain an engaging film throughout.

Zosia Mamet makes a strong lead, charming and funny, but grounded enough to handle the less comedic material. Matthew Shear manages to juxtapose nicely the sullen post-break up Ben, with the more optimistic version we see during the secondary timeline. There is also very good support from Diana Irvine as Diana's best friend, and Deirdre O'Connell as the apartment's landlady.

Amongst the heavier dramas of the London Film Festival The Boy Downstairs was a refreshingly light fare. But this prevents it from being much more than an interesting look at the breakdown of a relationship and the aftermath of its ending. It has cute touches and a pair of very good lead performances but is perhaps too attached to New York to move beyond its limitations.

This is a London Film Festival preview and The Boy Downstairs will be released at a later date.