In case the bleak title isn't a tipoff, You Are Alone isn't a romantic comedy that will have you clicking your heels after you punch eject on your DVD player. It's a sad, complicated, and challenging little independent film. I doubt it will resonate with many viewers, but for those it does reach, it will pack a wallop.

Daphne (Jessica Bohl) is a gorgeous high school girl (headed for Yale) who moonlights as an escort. Her neighbor Buddy (Richard Brundage) is a recent widower who is clearly crushed by overwhelming loneliness. These two come together when Buddy learns of the alternate life of Daphne (aka "Britney") at a bachelor party for his nephew. So he hires her for private services, and she agrees (mainly to protect her secret life). The next hour and change are spent with the two in a cheap hotel room, discussing his awful life, her job, and various other things you don't normally encounter in casual conversation.

Bohl's fearless performance is the highlight of the film. Though both she and Brundage have some difficult and imperfectly-written dialogue to work through, they succeed more often than not at making you believe they're real people with real problems. Of course, if all escorts really looked like Bohl, the world's marriages would have a hell of a problem. But their conversation, filled with pregnant pauses and plenty of things left unsaid, works more often than not, especially as we become more comfortable with the duo.

My only complaint is with writer/director Gorman Bechard's ending, a "shocking twist" that can't go unmentioned. It's simultaneously obvious, tacky, and wholly unlikely, were these two actually from the real world. It's the weakest part of an otherwise pretty solid film.