听 User Rating 
Contains moderate sexual images
"Behind our counters we have stories, maybe not shattering ones, but worth telling." So says restless college drop-out Ariel (Daniel Hendler) in Lost Embrace. Trouble is, this Argentinean comedy/drama only sticks with one non-shattering story - Ariel's - which seems a shame given the racially diverse range of retailers to be found in its mall setting. Still, Daniel Burman's film has a certain shabby charm - and it even gets round to having a plot when one of Ariel's long-lost relatives returns.
Mostly, though, this is a movie about mooching. Burman's handheld camera doggedly follows Ariel as he drifts around the seedy shopping centre where he helps his mother (Adriana Aizemberg) flog women's lingerie. Clearly, our sullen hero would rather be somewhere else - specifically Poland, where his Jewish roots lie. Yet Ariel invests a lot less energy in trying to acquire a passport than he does in griping about childhood grievances (which are eventually resolved with a smidgeon of sentiment).
"A FAIR HELPING OF VISUAL ZIP"
Wearing as this whining and general lack of dramatic momentum gets, there's usually something to distract the attention. From cuts of one sort (jumpy editing) to another (a circumcision flashback), there's a fair helping of visual zip. But Burman's biggest asset is his supporting gallery of Austrian/Argentinean travel agents, Korean feng shui experts and Italian hairdressers (not forgetting Silvina Bosco's internet-shop sexpot). Kind of a united colours of Buenos Aires, this motley mob's exploits thankfully stay the right side of My Big Fat Greek Wedding-esque ethnic whimsy. Without them, this Embrace really would be lost.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Lost Embrace (El Abrazo Partido) is released in UK cinemas on Friday 28th April 2006.
