Bar Story is a romantic comedy where you don't really laugh until the very end. I watched this twice and the second time around enjoyed it more because I knew the jokes were coming up.

I think the filmmaker Kellen Blair has done a disservice to viewers by not letting them know it's okay to laugh when the jokes are taking place. I'm not certain but I suspect that the problem is with the music score. It's very serious and I felt I was not supposed to laugh.

The story is lighthearted and fun. It features a born loser type, Barry, telling a bartender of his problems with trying to woo women. Barry explains that he just hasn't had any luck with women because of his own ineptitude until Alana, a women he first met when he was a pageboy in a wedding where she was a flower girl.

The story is told in much the same way as we have seen in countless other comedies but it is always heartwarming to see a born loser's problems. You can always find some solace in the knowledge that your experiences have not been as awful and if they've come close, it affords you an opportunity to laugh at yourself - always a healthy exercise.

The film is also about having faith and trust in life. It is about not giving up in the face of things always going wrong. Despite his blunders and accidents with women, Barry perseveres and eventually meets Alana, his soul mate. And it is only because he has been jilted just before the altar that he takes to having a few drinks to try and make sense of it all.

The bartender's advice that if Einstein had given up we wouldn't have light bulbs is a motivational message I've never heard before and one of the best lines of the script.

Cathy Stovell