He says:

“Down With Love” is supposed to be fashioned after the Doris Day/Rock Hudson sugary romance films of the 1950s. Honestly, I can’t say I’m familiar with those films, but if this is any indication… I don’t have any desire to be. Although it does have a few bright spots, “Down With Love” is too sweet for its own good.

RenCB)e Zellweger (“Chicago,” “Jerry Macguire”), shows up in full Doris Day twinkle as Barbara Novak, who comes to New York to promote her book, a manifesto advising single women to favor career over marriage and sex over love.

Ewan McGregor (“Moulin Rouge,” “Trainspotting”) plays Catcher Block, a Brit playboy journalist out to expose Barbara as a sham; he’ll do that by pretending he’s a naive astronaut from Texas and make Barbara fall in marriage-minded love with him.

With clever repartee and sexual innuendo, the audience waits to see who will first give in to the power of love.

The real stars here are the people behind the camera: art director Martin Whist, production designer Andrew Laws, costum designer Daniel Orlandi and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth.

The movie looks terrific, replete with gorgeous, fabulously fake sets; fun, garish fashion; an impossibly clean, movie-perfect New York City, complete with a fat full moon; and wacky split-screen phone conversations with a perverse twist.

A swingin’ soundtrack by Marc Shaiman inevitably includes two famously hip his-and-her versions of “Fly Me to the Moon.”

All the production values in the world can’t overcome the material, however. “Down With Love” is as light as cotton candy – sweet and colorful, but with negligible nutritional value for the brain.

Five minutes after you’ve seen the picture, you’ll have forgotten all about it. These days even romantic comedies have to have more than high sugar content.

She says:

Oh, lighten up. This film is not going to change your life; it’s just a lot of fun. A lavish homage to such late fifties and early sixties romantic comedies as “Pillow Talk” and “Lover Come Back,” it offers the same blend of innocence and innuendo, but cranked up for an era without the same strict Motion Picture Production Code.

Naturally, when nothing is quite as naughty any more, it’s harder to give the jokes the same subtlety or thrill.

The double entendres are pushed as far as they’ll travel in “Down With Love” and encompass references to all manner of sexual experience and preference.

The script is self-consciously smart and relentlessly clever; the cast plays it to the hilt. Every possible convention of “Pillow Talk” and its ilk are playfully recycled, from the animated opening credits to the split-screen phone conversations.

Whimsically-ideal sets (complete with a massive paper moon) remind us that this is a never-existent New York City, and pitch-perfect, over-the-top costumes keep us resolutely in parody mode.

Meanwhile, Zellweger and McGregor embrace the goofiness of the material. Everyone is enjoying the ride.

Is it cotton candy? Absolutely. But it holds together and it’s whip-smart, which is more than can be said of most of the films you’re likely to see this summer.

“Down With Love” is rated PG-13 for sexual humor