What is it about Parker Posey that instantly elevates everything she appears in? From commercial schlock like You’ve Got Mail to indie junk like Adam & Steve, she is often the only bright spot in otherwise forgettable fare. For the past decade, she has been the go-to gal for indie films, playing variations on the same twitchy, neurotic Manhattan hipster.

In Broken English, that former party girl is all grown up, and her neuroses have left her sad and alone, just another pretty, smart New York woman who can’t seem to find love. Posey’s trademark cartoonish exaggerations are all dialed back, and she gives arguably her most balanced, nuanced performance in ages. Her Nora Wilder is unfulfilled in every way, going on a series of dead-end dates and eventually drinking herself to sleep each night. Yet, it’s hard to see past her impish grin, hear beyond her odd inflections and really get to the character; it’s still Parker Posey, Indie Queen.

She meets a man she instantly connects with, and Posey’s eyes light up, her character alive with the possibilities of finally finding love. But the too-perfect Frenchman is only visiting New York, and when he asks her to come back to Paris with him, she freezes, unable to move out of her self-imposed stasis and take a chance.

The light fades, the grin falls, and her feelings of stagnation and loneliness are palpable. Nora eventually heads to Paris in search of her love, only to misplace the scrap of paper with the guy’s phone number on it. Here director Zoe Cassavetes had the chance to do something interesting, but instead the film devolves into romantic comedy cliché. Once again, Posey manages to salvage the material as best she can, her status as Indie Queen masking how trite the conclusion really is. But if the movie starred anyone else, it would be hard to really care.