Not to be confused with last year’s godawful Take Me Home Tonight (a title change really should have been considered), Take Me Home is a familiar but pleasant road romance about an odd couple sharing a cab from Manhattan to southern California.

Thom (Sam Jaeger, co-star of TV’s Parenthood) is an aspiring photographer stuck in one of those “you can’t get work until you have work” loops. He drives a cab sporadically, and as of this morning has been reduced to living in it.

Claire (Amber Jaeger) is also having a bad day, having just found her executive husband in inappropriate proximity with a junior co-worker who knows the paint scheme of Claire’s bedroom. When she learns that her father in California has just had a heart attack, she decides on the spur of the moment to visit him for the first time in decades. Of course, when you’re afraid of flying, “spur of the moment” means you hail the first passing taxi. And guess who is driving that?

If you guessed Thom, you probably won’t be surprised by much else that happens here, like Claire losing her wallet so that they have to scrounge for gas money, or the odd holes in Thom’s history being explained during a stop at his parents’ house in Arizona, or the growing but unspoken attraction between our two travelers. What makes the trip likeable are a pair of stars who vaguely resemble other actors (my notes variously mention Kirstin Wiig, Sam Rockwell, Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, and Kathering Heigl). Sam Jaeger also wrote and directed the film, and whether he was keeping his budget down by hiring his wife for his co-star or designed the film as a vehicle to display her talents is a subject for further discussion.

Watch the trailer for Take Me Home