THIS is one of the most unconventional romantic comedies you're likely to see all year. It's almost one of the least engaging or likeable.

Aimed at the Sex and the City crowd, Nick Hurran's morality tale of deception and hi-tech snooping proves that sometimes you can find Mr Right - only to discover that you're Ms Wrong.

Stacy Holt (Murphy) is always on the look out for interesting stories to further her journalistic ambitions.

For the time being, she is content to work as an associate producer for daytime talk show hostess Kippie Kann (Bates), whose Jerry Springer-style show peddles scandalous confessions to the baying masses.

Stacy feels at home in the bustling offices of the production company, where she chews the fat with her colleagues, including ballsy Barb (Hunter) and much-abused underling Ira (Sussman).

That same sense of warmth and camaraderie is sadly lacking in the apartment Stacy shares with her boyfriend Derek (Livingston).

He is annoyingly reluctant to discuss his past relationships and Stacy is uncertain whether she wants to commit to a man who refuses to open up to her. With the encouragement of Barb, Stacy steals Derek's organiser and extracts the names and telephone numbers of his ex-girlfriends from his address book.

She contacts the exes under the guise of making a show about her boyfriend, in the hope that his old lovers will reveal secrets about their relationships and why the romances turned sour.

However, one old flame, Joyce (Nicholson), is simply too nice and too sweet to deceive and Stacy is ultimately forced to reveal the real reasons for her sneaky fact-finding mission, with terrible consequences.

Little Black Book is a comedy so dark, it's almost impossible to find the laughs amidst the gradually crumbling ruins of Stacy's relationship.

Murphy is effervescent as ever but even her charm cannot curry any sympathy for Stacy, who continues to lie until she is backed into a corner, then naively believes that she will be forgiven if she tearfully tells the truth.

Hunter is a delight as the tenacious co-worker with a secret agenda and Livingston and Nicholson are both solid in badly undernourished roles. Bates barely makes an impact.

The plot limps from one predictable plot turn to the next, building to a finale that lets Stacy off far too lightly.

DAMON SMITH