The Oranges (Cert 15, 87 mins). Starring Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Alia Shawkat, Leighton Meester, Adam Brody, Sam Rosen ***

David Walling (Laurie) and his wife Paige (Keener) live on Orange Drive in New Jersey opposite their best friends, Terry and Cathy Ostroff (Platt, Janney). There is a deep bond between the two clans and lots of emotional baggage between David and Paige’s son Toby (Brody) and daughter Vanessa (Shawkat) and Terry and Cathy’s daughter Nina (Meester). As Thanksgiving beckons, the tranquillity of Orange Drive is shattered by the return of Nina after a five-year absence. Unexpectedly, Nina sparks an affair with David, which is eventually exposed, and the two families ponder the consequences of this betrayal. The Oranges is a bittersweet comedy of suburban malaise which examines the fallout of a May-December romance. American Beauty traversed the same territory with sharper wit and style but Julian Farino’s film delivers a few riotous interludes, such as a furious wife destroying the outdoor Christmas decorations on her cheating spouse’s front lawn by running them over in her car.