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Smart, savvy and very, very funny, Down With Love is an expert exercise in pop cultural pastiche: an elegant, hilarious romantic comedy which mimics, then surpasses its straight-laced 60s ancestors.

Pillow Talk is the obvious touchstone for the writers and director Peyton Reed, who deftly rework the Doris Day/Rock Hudson starrer about sworn enemies who fall in love.

Renée Zellweger has just the right air of shuttered sexiness to play small-town girl Barbara Novak, who arrives in New York to publicise the titular book: a revolutionary tome which suggests women will only achieve parity in the workplace by ditching romance, chomping chocolate and making love-free love, à la carte.

Her editor (Sarah Paulson) sets up an interview with top-journo Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor), a womanising wastrel who keeps cancelling their date, leaving his publisher (David Hyde Pierce) pulling his hair out. But when sales go stratospheric, Catch starts taking Novak seriously, setting out to undermine her down with love line by making her fall for him.

It doesn't take a genre genius to guess out how this plays out: with faked identity, apartment swapping and cross-purposes aplenty. But there are surprises in store - not least how funny it is.

With a couple of uncertain, Austin Powers-style exceptions, the film forgoes spoofing itself, opting instead to relish the farcical scenarios and witty word play.

Cruder than a 50s or 60s studio picture would be, it nonetheless retains a wonderful innocence: recalling a cinematic age when falling in love was depicted with wit and words, rather than soft-focus flesh fumbling.

The performers must take great credit. McGregor is as charismatic as ever - if sometimes unsure of the tone - while the supposed supporting players steal the show, with Hyde Pierce proving pricelessly prissy: his comic timing perfect (I feel so used!).

There's as much emotional uplift as Hudson/Day pictures could ever provide, with a surprising, extremely clever spin in the final third. Far From Heaven, played for laughs: divine.