Bombon (El Perro)

Bombon goes driving with Juan Villegas.

Herald rating: ****

A gentle, genial and humane comedy that will leave you smiling for days, this little Argentinian picture subverts expectations because you keep waiting for something terrible to befall its main character. But it doesn't.

That, after a fashion, is the film's point. The setting - one of the country's endless series of economic meltdowns - is disaster enough.

Certainly the recession has taken its toll on Juan Villegas (character and actor have the same name), a 52-year-old retrenched service station attendant. Unemployed and unemployable, he travels around workplaces trying to sell his handsome handmade knives - but no one has any money to buy them.

Villegas has the kind of face that carries a whole movie. His smile - tender, kind and sad without being resigned - seems always about to crease in tears, but he has learned to deal with triumph and disaster just the same. In a scene all the more piercing for being offhandedly observed, he uses a precious knife to bribe his way out of trouble, in another he wins a pair of sunglasses ... but his smile never wavers.

And even as life grinds him down he maintains his humanity, helping out a woman stranded on a lonely road because "time is one thing I have plenty of".

When his act of kindness is rewarded with the gift of a pony-size dogo argentino, called Bombon, it seems like man and mutt will simply make odd travelling companions. But the dog starts making him money by doing guard details and when Juan meets a trainer (Donado) who wants to groom the pooch for shows and stud services the storyline veers off in an unexpected direction.

The film makes the most of its wide-sky Patagonian settings and the artless performances make for much of its charm.

The only false note is a soundtrack based on a single, sentimental theme (Sorin's son is credited) which wears out its welcome long before the end.

Director Sorin told a Sydney film festival audience that the film is about unemployment but that "you may laugh if you like", and that just about nails it. There's plenty bubbling beneath the surface, about machismo, for example, social justice and the nature of friendship. But it's best enjoyed as a winning little story about two men and a dog, the best canine comedy since Best In Show. Recommended.

CAST: Juan Villegas, Walter Donado

DIRECTOR: Carlos Sorin

RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes

RATING: M

SCREENING: Academy