A While American studios make treacly films like "Love! Valor! Compassion!" and farces like "Jeffrey", whose comedy too often falls flat, the British have been making films like "Bedrooms and Hallways" -- side-splittingly funny, cynical without falling into caustic sarcasm or despair, and irony only when it has to be (rather than constantly).

Director Rose Troche provides a light hand guiding this thoughtful film, in which gay Leo (Kevin McKidd) -- ready to forsake love because he can't even get a date -- joins a straight men's group only to unwittingly end up seducing the entire group. His best friend, Darren (Tom Hollander), is an over-sexed clubber who trysts with his new realtor boyfriend in various homes for sale.

Julie Graham is somewhat understated as Leo and Darren's best friend, Angie. James Purefoy is warm, solid and powerfully understated as Leo's new-found "straight" love interest, Brendan. He's the perfect foil for McKidd's slightly too-nervous, too-neurotic Leo. The real standout in the cast is Hollander, who deftly walks the tightrope between obnoxiously queeny and faux-homosexual.

What really makes "Bedrooms and Hallways" work is that the conclusion of the film isn't anything like you'd expect. It avoids all the cliches, twist-endings, and "depressing endings" that most directors and writers would have lazily permitted. It's a sophisticated conclusion that makes you think and feel without leaving the audience unwarrantedly happy or sad.