WHAT HAPPENS LATER

(UK 15/ROI 15, 104 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, available now on Amazon/ BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/ TalkTalk TV Store and other platforms, available from April 8 on DVD/Blu-ray, Drama/ Romance)

Starring: Meg Ryan, David Duchovny and the voice of Hal Liggett.

Businessman Bill (David Duchovny) is bound for Austin for a meeting with his boss but bad weather strands him at the same airport as his ex-lover, wellness practitioner Willa (Meg Ryan), 25 years after they last saw each other.

She is en route to Boston to perform a cleansing ceremony on a newly divorced gal pal with her omnipresent rainstick.

Fittingly, they are headed in opposite directions. Outside, the weather is frightful and inside the terminal, the temperature is initially lukewarm as the couple trade pleasantries and open old wounds.

Bill discloses he has been diagnosed with anticipatory anxiety while Willa nurses her own regrets about the past and an unfulfilled dream of raising a large family in a cabin in the woods.

As the unscheduled layover stretches into the night, Bill and Willa lower their guards.

Adapted from Steven Dietz’s stage play Shooting Star, What Happens Later is a dramatically uneven two-hander that aims for the wistful self-reflection and introspection of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy but something gets lost in transit.

Flurries of snow provide a picturesque backdrop to sweet yet contrived vignettes in Ryan’s second directorial feature. Consequently, we are treated to a dreamy, prolonged sequence of reunited lovers dancing along a corridor to Lightning Seeds’ euphoric anthem Pure as if no-one else is watching.

Appealing screen chemistry between Ryan and Duchovny can’t convince us to care about whether their 50-something singletons should fasten seatbelts for a second chance at something meaningful.