There was a time when you couldn’t help but awkwardly bump into a rom-com at nearly every corner you turned. But much like manners, Sweet ‘n’ Sour Pot Noodles and Hailey’s comet, they are a rare oddity these days.

This feels that little bit rarer by not only being a romantic comedy, but by also being set in space.

Orbiting Jupiter in a space shuttle are its crew Jane (Zoë Chao) and Adam (Anthony Mackie). There were originally three of them, but, well, Benson expired unceremoniously.

With the shuttle broken down, it’s been three years since the pair were last on Earth with their other halves. Thankfully the craft’s life support system is working well, with no concerns regarding air or food supplies. They even have a goat and a few chickens for company.

They cling to a very thin thread of hope that they might be found, but as both are scientists, they know how unlikely that reality is.

So they keep each other occupied, with watching films, dancing, exercising, and maintaining the ship. But the question of sex finally appears on the horizon, as they debate the pros and cons of the argument. But the bottom line is, should they have sex in space?

Despite directing a number of comedy specials and music videos in recent years, this is the directorial debut for Kristian Mercado. It’s a debut that was clearly shot on a tight budget, but the fledgling director uses that too his advantage with some quirky set design. It’s less a futuristic craft, and more a funky IKEA showroom in space; after all it’s unlikely that you’ll ever see a kitchen, bathroom with his and her sinks, and a cosy living room with wallpaper on board a NASA shuttle.

The cutaways of the shuttle in space are also more lo-fi than sci-fi, using cardboard models against an arts and crafts space ground.

It’s a film that relies on the chemistry of its two leads, so it’s fortunate that there are certainly sparks between Mackie and Chao, especially as they have to carry the majority of the film.

It also proves that you really can take a rom-com anywhere and it will still work, if the writing is good enough, which is certainly the case here. For at least the first two thirds of the film are the cinematic definition of cute, with a long line of fun dialogue exchanged between the two.

There’s a surprising amount of depth too, that just sneaks up on you, delivering on more than one occasion a lump in the throat, with one instance being the fault of none other than Lionel Ritchie.

It’s a shame then that its final third decides to take the obvious route out, and in doing so, loses much of its charm and appeal that it had delivered up until this point. With a little more creativity, which it has in bags up until then, it could have reached for the moon, as opposed to its disappointing crash landing onto safer ground which it chooses.

Still, for the most part, this is an adorable entry into the rom-com universe that is beautifully art directed and full of good humour, making it a real blast.