If you are expecting the taught excitement of Michael Winterbottom's earlier cinematic success, "Welcome To Sarajevo", this might come as a disappointment. In large part this is a mood film, that starts slowly and takes a long while to build up a head of steam, teasing the viewer with tit-bits of the story. While it does eventually get there, it delivers too little, too late.

Helen (Rachel Weisz) is a small town hairdresser and magnet for the opposite sex. When she bumps into a mute teenager, who lives down on the beach, he pursues her sending her flowers. Meanwhile, her DJ boyfriend is getting frustrated, six months into the relationship, that he can't have it off with her. The third man on the scene is Martin (Alessandro Nivola), a blast from her past, who has just hitched into town having been released after a lengthy stint in jail.

"I Want You" has shades of Atom Egoyan's exploration of sex, voyeurism and death, Exotica, in both its subject matter and jigsaw puzzle narrative. It also shares the element of distance. The story, which later depicts ambiguous and animalistic sex is provocative, but non-judgmental. It demands a reaction, only don't expect it from the film-maker.

The film is striking for its lush cinematography and fine soundtrack, including the eponymous number by Elvis Costello. Despite the damp, grey setting of Northern England, the cinematography is visually dramatic. The deep blue tones of the opening underwater sequence, for example, are so intense that you could believe you were watching an advertisement. In fact, it depicts a mummified body plunging into the depths of the sea (the significance of this becomes apparent over the course of the film). Winterbottom, himself a Northern lad, allows the camera to linger lovingly on the landscape: the timeless beach shacks, the brightly lit pier at night, the shadowy highrises beyond the beach, even the mundane city centre has a cold romance about it in his whimsical sepia-vision.

However, visuals alone are not enough. There is too much slack and not enough roll.