“Then Came You” (M) ***

KATHIE Lee Gifford and Craig Ferguson may not be household names like some movie stars. Until I saw “Then Came You”, I hadn’t heard of either of them. But they’ve had long careers in TV series, her in the USA, him in Britain. 

She’s not just a comedienne. In her late 60s, she wrote the screenplay for “Then Came You”, which some might call a bit egocentric because her character in it, Annabelle Wilson, a widow after more than 30 years of marriage, is a fun bird and rather cute. His career has been mainly acting in British TV and voice-overing in animations; as well, he’s done a bit of writing for TV – notably “Doc Martin”.

Annabelle is taking a round-the-world trip to visit the places where the favourite movies were set that she and late husband Fred enjoyed as relaxation after their daytime jobs managing a hardware store in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Her first stop is Scotland where the travel agent has booked her into the country home belonging to Howard Awd (Ferguson). Howard’s something of a bumbler, well-intentioned to a fault, heavily dependent on his best chum Gavin (Ford Kiernan) to run a big house that’s rather short of guests.

Some might consider that the Scottish landscape, in and around Ardkinglas House, in Cairndow, Argyll, to be the film’s real star. It’s certainly beautiful.

The screenplay contains no real surprises. Indeed, from the moment when Howard collects Annabelle at the railway station, where this movie is going is, well, predictable. Their journey from that moment to film’s end may have little structural shortcomings and moments of bleeding obvious but those are forgivable. Annabelle and Howard deserve the rest of their lives happily together after the deaths of spouses. It looks like they’ll get that, bumpy bits and all.

I watched “Then Came You” shortly after seeing “Judas and the Black Messiah”. The contrast was a wonderful tonic. I actually laughed at more than one of its comedic moments.

At Palace Electric, Hoyts