Twenty minutes into Return To Me, a film co-starring, co-written by, and directed by Bonnie Hunt, the heart of David Duchovny's dead wife (Joely Richardson) has been transplanted into the body of Minnie Driver. Duchovny is left grieving. The perennially ailing Driver is given another chance at life. Can these two find love and help each other start anew? Subtlety is clearly not a quality Hunt holds in great esteem, a fact hinted at in Return's opening shot (a descent from the heavens to a single building on the Chicago skyline) and confirmed a short time later with a scene in which Duchovny drops to the floor weeping beside a mournful dog. There's more than enough sentiment to choke on here, but Hunt's messy, heartfelt debut is oddly endearing. Unapologetically old-fashioned and uncompromisingly nice, it's filled with awkward patches, clumsy dialogue, and enough good nature to obscure many of its flaws. Duchovny looks out of place, Driver a little put off, but the rest of the cast (Hunt, James Belushi, Robert Loggia, and an especially good Carroll O'Connor as Driver's grandfather) seems to have great fun playing Driver's extended family, whose base of operations is an Irish-themed Italian restaurant. When Hunt lets her background players take the spotlight, as she often does, Return To Me is a pleasure; only the implausible romance gets in the way. Ultimately, that's a fatal flaw—there's too much dressing for too little salad—but Hunt's debut so refreshingly avoids the cookie-cutter romantic-comedy formula that better films seem inevitable down the line.