Plan B

Argentine writer-director Marco Berger's second feature, Ausente, won the Teddy award for LGBT movies at the 2011 Berlin festival. It'll be worth looking out for, as his first movie, Plan B [2009] was an engaging romantic comedy.

Bruno (Manuel Vignau), an amiable bearded layabout, is firmly rejected as a life partner by his girlfriend, Laura (Mercedes Quinteros, in her first role). She still has sex with him occasionally even though she's got a new college boyfriend, Pablo (Lucas Ferraro). Bruno schemes to get her back by befriending her new love and trying to lead him astray. The plan backfires when their male bonding unhinges Bruno's own emotions, then those of his girlfriend and rival.

The cute concept succeeds: Berger presents a slow-paced, wry character study of modern-minded young men facing up to sexual self-awareness. The slow, episodic pace reflects the naturalistic dialogue and gradual development of the men's friendship.

At 100 minutes, it's a slightly over-long novella given unexpected depth by the lead actors' close-ups: Vignau's eyes twinkle and dare (imagine a Bloom-Beckham hybrid) while Ferraro's glare anxiously (in stereotypical Latin style a la Bernal or Bardem). Their mutual attraction is comprehensible, unlike the woman's role in their lives; their happy ending is too pat to be true to life.