Director Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, The Count Of Monte Cristo) sharpens his blade for another lunge at an epic historical romance, this time based on the popular Celtic myth.

Predating both Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and the legend of King Arthur and Guinevere, Tristan + Isolde is a sweeping yarn of doomed lovers, betrayal and sacrifice, set during the aftermath of the fall of Rome.

While Reynolds's picture certainly looks good, there's an absence of passion in Dean Georgaris's screenplay and many of the performances.

Pretty boy James Franco is too drippy as lovesick Tristan, getting all tongue-tied and misty-eyed at even the merest thought of his beloved.

Isolde, played to the best of her abilities by Sophia Myles, is written as a creature of fragile beauty rather than substance.

The fractious relationship with her father is poorly developed and the tepid sexual chemistry with Franco never ignites a raging fire of emotion, which should drive the film to its tragic conclusion.

If the leads fail to impress, supporting performances command our attention, not least Rufus Sewell's finely judged portrayal of a nobleman who risks his heart by loving Isolde, and is dealt an almost fatal blow by the treachery of the man he calls his son.

Reynolds provides a clean and polished depiction of the Middle Ages; the cast looks gorgeous, even with artfully placed daubs of mud, and the love scenes are soft-lit Mills & Boon.

Anne Dudley's orchestral score skips and frolics in the background, stopping short of bombarding us with a full complement of fiddles, bodhrans, pipes and tin whistles.