Novelist Roddy Doyle, that valiant comic chronicler of Dublin blue-collar life (The Commitments, The Snapper), comes up lazy with his commonplace first original screenplay for When Brendan Met Trudy, a screwball tale of improbable lovers set in a bland middle-class milieu. Brendan (Peter McDonald), pale and meek, leads a sedate life as a teacher at a Dublin boys' school. His major excitements are singing archaic songs in a chorus and attending old, old movies by himself, especially those in which " Duke" Wayne charms the ladies.

But there are no women for Brendan, until, at a pub one night, he meets the mysterious Trudy (Flora Montgomery), who might or might not teach in a Montessori school, might or might not be a demonic nighttime castrater of innocent men, and might or might not be a cat burglar. For whatever reason, she falls for dull, prissy Brendan and they have the most coy, unconvincing, and uncharming of affairs. The humor is thin and strained, as when Brendan's strait-laced mom discovers the word "motherfucker." The director, Kieron Walsh, a veteran of award-winning commercials, is an invisible presence. All in all: a bomb for its producer, the BBC.