There's plot contrivance aplenty, but verisimilitude isn't the point. Rather, it's a movie about mistrust of the system, personal inertia, and the melancholy stasis of everyday life. Maybe that makes it sound too heavy - Cherish has the lightest possible touch. The wispy relationship that develops between Nelson and Tunney, who leave emotional vapor trails that twist around one another but never really intersect, is charming, and the bittersweet conclusion, which declines to follow the conventions of quirky romantic comedy, is refreshing. Even the breezy pop soundtrack, neither cloying nor condescending, is beautifully free of hipster pretensions.

I'm pretty sure I've seen director Finn Taylor's previous film, Dream With the Fishes, but I can't remember a damned thing about it. By that standard, if no other, the insinuatingly goofy Cherish is an improvement - and the performances make it better. It's a slight film, but it feels good.