This agreeable debut feature from Rachel Lang seeks to make a virtue of its own lack of direction. For the most part, it satisfies that ambition. Set around blank, featureless buildings in contemporary Strasbourg, Baden Baden (there's a pun in the title), offers a great character study of a quiet, odd heroine. Ana (Samomé Richard) who begins the film as a driver for a feature film production.

She’s not very good at the job – unable even to find the airport – but still gets on well with the glamorous star. After a savage balling out, she gets into the company Porsche and heads for her home town by the German border.

This apparently decent sort winds up at her grandmother’s house and, when the elderly lady is hospitalised after a fall, sets out to install a shower where her bath once was. (Get it? Baden Baden refers both to the nearby spa town and Ana’s altruistic project.)

Both shy and energetic, with short boyish hair, Ana has a humorous energy that draws all sorts of people into her orbit. The hardware store employee who helps her with shower heads ends up becoming a friend and a potential suitor. She also rekindles a romance with a conceited artist (Olivier Chantreau) who let her down in the past.

Lang manages to make interesting compositions from uninteresting prospects. She does some particularly interesting work photographing unappetising foods. Elsewhere, Baden Baden insinuates itself into Ana's dreams of a verdant Eden. A trip to Le Corbusier's stunning Notre Dame de Haut adds further elegance later on.

The film is, however, most remarkable for Richard’s subtle work. We are never quite sure why she does the things she does, but we become fond enough of her to continue asking ourselves the questions. Eric Rohmer would surely have been happy to work with the actor and to create the character.

A promising, if slightly underpowered, debut.