“Relationships don't always fit like a glove.”

Working at the glove counter in the posh Saks Fith Avenue department store in Beverly Hills, Mirabelle Butterfield (Danes) dreams of being an artist while surrounded by the conventional – or at least the conventional by LA standards. Typically of Steve Martin's scripts, LA is as much of a character as any of the people in the film, and this movie is an adaptation of Martin's novella.

As well as being the screenwriter, Martin plays Ray Porter, a wealthy bachelor tremendously skilled with women. By contrast, Mirabelle's other suitor Jeremy (Schwartzman) doesn't have a clue, although he goes on a journey of his own in this film when he joins a rock group on tour – but this rock group listens to self-help books on tape on their bus' stereo.

All three of these characters, not only Jeremy, have a lot to learn about life and, in particular, love.

Director Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) says: “This was the best script that had landed on my doorstep. It was taut, brave, honest and real”. Why did Martin choose a British director for this LA based story? Considering Martin's most LA film, LA Story, was a success with English director Mick Jaskon at the helm, Martin had no reservations collaborating with Tucker. According to him, visitors to Los Angeles “see the city with fresh eyes that someone who lives here might not see. Also, there's a different pacing to this Los Angeles story that Anand, also a British director, has which I see not so much as a slow pace, but as a much more poetic pacing”.

At the London Film Festival screening, Danes and Tucker participated in a Q&A with the audience, and Danes had some interesting things to say about Tucker: “It's funny, but a lot of directors are afraid of emotion, they would rather avoid it, which is ironic and mystifying to me. But Anand is a very feeling person, who does not flinch from any demonstration of emotion. So with him I felt allowed to be expressive”.

Although the film does have a love triangle element within it and tells the story of these relationships as Mirabelle puzzles out how she feels about both Ray and Jeremy, it's really a story about self-empowerment. All of the characters are in the process of discovering themselves. Everyone has been hurt before, and everyone has emotional scars and bruises, but this film is about what we all do after we've received them and the choices available to us. The perfect romance may not exist in real life, but this film shows it's still possible to search for, and maybe find, true love – albeit a realistic kind.