A FIVE-STAR chick flick which manages to entertain and surprise, while making you laugh while you cry - Crush is the best British film in a long time, writes Lucy Searle.

Warm, witty, blunt and laugh-out-loud funny is the only way to describe this romantic comedy, with a dark side, which follows the lives of three forty-something women and their disastrous love lives, re-told during weekly drinking sessions - its not as boring as it sounds!

Andie Mac-Dowell, of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame, plays Kate, a prim headmistress who is fending off the advances of a homely vicar.

Fellow Four Weddings star Anna Chancellor plays cynical man-hungry doctor Molly who has three failed marriages behind her and Imelda Staunton (you'll know her face but won't remember where from, if you're anything like me!) plays local police inspector Janine.

The first half of the film takes an amusing journey through the characters' home countries lifestyle while Kate falls in love with former pupil Jed - played by the gorgeous Kenny Doughty - and her friends try to rescue her from this 'unsuitable' romance with a 25-year-old hunk.

Jed's appearance in the trio's settled life upsets the balance and sends the second half of the film off into a darker tale of anger, jealousy, suspicion and hypocrisy - but it never loses its humour.

A wonderful, engaging film which pulls you into the lives of its characters, as any good film should, and ensures you leaves the cinema with a warm glow and a greater appreciation of your friends - this is not to be missed, under any circumstances.

Crush, released on June 7, is currently showing at Rubery's UGC Cinema, Great Park - book your tickets now.It's one not to miss!