C+

Two likable loners find one another over the course of a day in London in this second feature from Joel Hopkins which, like his first (“Jump Tomorrow”), is a slight and implausible romance that nonetheless has moments of charm, thanks to its stars. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough: this is the sort of picture you can skip in theatres and wait to watch on DVD.

The duo this time around is a pair of middle-aged solitaries. One is Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman), a harried, down-on-his-luck composer of commercial background music who flies to England to attend the wedding of his estranged daughter (Liane Balaban). The other is Kate Walker (Emma Thompson), an unlucky-in-love would-be writer who works as a survey-taker at Heathrow.

After a couple of chance encounters (in an airport hallway, at a cab stand), they finally meet “cute” at a bar after Harvey’s left the wedding ceremony disappointed that his daughter’s elected to have her stepfather (James Brolin) give her away (and learned from his boss, played by Richard Schiff, that he’s been fired). Kate, a rangy spinster with a mother (Eileen Atkins, drolly eccentric) who’s convinced that her neighbor is a serial killer and won’t stop calling her about it, initially resists his advances, but is won over by his elfin self-deprecation.

Soon they’re spending the day together, and Kate accompanies Harvey to his daughter’s wedding reception (in a new frock he buys for her) where he makes up not only with the newlyweds, but also with his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) and even the stepfather. Now utterly smitten, Harvey arranges to meet Kate the next day, but—shades of “An Affair to Remember”!—fails to make the appointment (as a result of one of the worst twists in Hopkins’ script). Will they manage to get together again despite the misstep, and the fact that Harvey’s boss offers him his old job back? As Sarah Palin might say, you betcha!

This is very thin stuff, but while it offers absolutely no surprises and the dialogue is hardly of Noel Coward quality, Hoffman and Thompson—a drolly Mutt and Jeff pair physically—have such great rapport that they make the most of even the weakest moments, doing the thespian equivalent of a vaudeville soft-shoe routine. (They both appeared in “Stranger Than Fiction,” of course, but didn’t face off in it.) But even they can’t make a silk purse out of corduroy.

The rest of the cast is strictly of secondary interest, apart from Atkins, who does the dotty elder bit to delightful effect. Both Brolin and Bates seem slightly off their game, and Balaban is only okay; but Schiff brings his customary seedy pomposity to the part of Harvey’s boss.

Thanks to the London locations and cinematographer John de Borman’s expert use of them, “Last Chance Harvey” is a nice-looking picture, and editor Robin Sales keeps it moving at a pleasant clip.

And Dickon Hinchliffe’s score is suitably understated, which seems a perfect complement to a picture that offers some modest pleasures without ever really taking wing. Older audiences in particular should find this an innocuous time-passer, but not much more.