In Australia, the path from TV funnyman to big-screen comedian is paved with duds. Working Dog managed it with The Castle, Mick Molloy made it work with Crackerjack, and… nope, that’s it.

So it seems like former Rove sidekick Peter Helliar is setting himself up for a fall with I Love You Too. But he’s got a few things working in his favour. First, he didn’t make himself the star: while he did write the script, he took on the relatively minor role of Blake, the best mate of the real star of the story Jim (Brendan Cowell). Helliar turns out to be a pretty decent actor, and he does get to deliver one of the emotional high points of the film, but having the AFO-nominated Cowell do the heavy lifting acting-wise doesn’t hurt the film one bit.

Secondly, this is a romantic comedy, which means it can give the gags a break when they start to run out of puff and show a bit of heart instead. Not that there’s a lot of heart on offer in the beginning, as Jim and Blake cruise the clubs unleashing a string of dodgy pick-up lines on ladies willing (when it’s Jim) and not-so-willing (when it’s Blake). Then Jim meets UK tourist Alice (Australian Yvonne Strahovski) and a one-night stand turns into a three and a half year relationship in which Jim manages to never actually tell her he loves her.

Clearly he does – he’s like an affectionate puppy dog – but a fairly firmly entrenched sense of immaturity stops him from saying those three little words even when she says them to him. On his birthday. When she expected him to propose. Suddenly she’s out of his life, he’s out getting drunk just like the old days, and next thing he knows he’s waking up in a car belonging to Charlie (Peter Dinklage, from The Station Agent and Death at a Funeral). It turns out that Charlie has some romantic difficulties of his own, so Jim makes him an offer: he’ll help Charlie get in touch with the woman of his dreams (Megan Gale) if Charlie helps him win back Alice.

Aside from a few jokes early on, Charlie’s physical stature isn’t a big deal here, and the lack of cheap dwarf jokes is just one of the many pleasant surprises this film has to offer. This isn’t an hysterically funny film but it is a touching one, and while the middle act does get bogged down a little with a few too many subplots, overall the story works well. Cowell and Strahovski both give excellent and completely believable performances, while the comedian-heavy supporting cast are just as good (what, no Rove cameo?). Director Daina Reid, who’s history wit comedy stretches back to on-camera appearances on Full Frontal and The Micallef P(r )ogram(me) (she’s also directed episodes of Very Small Business, City Homicide and All Saints) gets the maximum laughs out of the material while making this look like a real film, which isn’t something you could say about every Australian big-screen comedy.

There’s a development towards the end that, while hardly a twist, does seem at odds with the rest of the film, but for the most part I Love You Too is an Australian romantic comedy that’s both romantic and funny.  Which is a lot more than you might have expected.

I Love You Too opens in cinemas today (Thursday, May 6).
You can view the I Love You Too movie trailer here on TheVine.