LA Without A Map review

Johnny Depp's hilarious cameo (dispensing advice from a Dead Man poster the hero keeps on his wall) is the main reason to catch this amiable, if aimless, comedy from Finnish helmer Mika Kaurismäki.

Adapted from Richard Rayner's novel, it tells of a dour Scottish undertaker (Tennant) who quits Bradford to chase a kooky American tourist (Shaw) all the way to LA. There he endures a catalogue of humiliations as he rents a room from Vincent Gallo's dopehead hipster, gets a job cleaning pools and tries to sell his first novel (Uzi Suicide) to a clutch of studio bigwigs.

The combination of self-deprecating British humour and US indie street cred doesn't quite gel, and Tennant makes an annoying protagonist (he gets beaten up three times, and deserves every pummelling). But compensations come in the form of Julie Delpy's giggly waitress and Amanda Plummer as a sex-starved Hollywood harpy.