‘JULIET, NAKED’

R 1:38

At a time when every other movie, even the rom-coms, seems to contain political subtext, it’s a relief to see a bagatelle come along like “Juliet, Naked.” The romantic comedy is a sweet-tart confection that, like lemon sorbet, cleanses a palate gone sour from too many cinematic servings of the heavy stuff.

Based on Nick Hornby’s 2009 novel, “Juliet” stars Rose Byrne as Annie, the curator of a local history museum in a small English seaside town. Annie lives — neither particularly happily nor unhappily — with boyfriend Duncan (Chris O’Dowd, funny as ever in his low-key way), a film professor at the local college whose lectures make comparisons between “The Wire” and Greek tragedy.

But that pretentiousness pales in comparison to the seriousness with which Duncan takes his hobby: a fan website devoted to Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), an American cult musician who, after releasing his seminal 1993 album “Juliet,” disappeared off the face of the Earth.

When a bootleg CD surfaces featuring unplugged demo recordings from that album, Annie, who has had it up to her ears with Duncan’s fanboy-ism, posts a negative review of the CD online. This not only leads to some minor tensions with her live-in beau, but more important, to an email correspondence between Annie and Tucker, who, it seems, isn’t hiding out, but simply living below the radar in his ex-wife’s garage in upstate New York.

It’s a classic love triangle — with Tucker and Annie, as email pen pals, slowly coming to the realization that they may have feeling for each other, and with Duncan playing the jealous third wheel. Jealous, that is, of Tucker, not Annie.

Director Jesse Peretz, a former musician who turned to filmmaking, plays this familiar scenario’s comedy not in power chords but grace notes, finding lovely nuance in the smallest of character interactions. In his screenplay — written with Tamara Jenkins (“Savages”) and Jim Taylor (“Sideways”) — Peretz tells a story that is ultimately not about three people, but all human connection.

Mostly, “Juliet, Naked” is about our capacity for hope. Without it, the film argues, why would anyone be so foolish as to try something new?

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Rose Byrne, Chris O’Dowd (Crude language)

— Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post