Crush

Set in a bucolic English town, Crush quickly establishes its theme of female bonding as three single fortysomething women get together for a regular session of drinking, eating sweets, and bemoaning their miserable love lives. Soon, Kate (Andie MacDowell), headmistress at the local school, falls for the new church organist--a handsome, 25-year-old former student named Jed (Kenny Doughty)--and "friends" Molly (Anna Chancellor) and Janine (Imelda Staunton) do their best to thwart what they deem a relationship disaster waiting to happen, testing the limits of their friendship along the way. Leave it to the British (in this case, writer-director John McKay) to make a chick flick better than the average Hollywood attempt, but despite some sharp repartee and charm, Crush stretches credibility with too many plot twists. Optional. (T. Rich)