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Not many family dramas open with a shot of three burly, hairy guys getting it on. But such lusty, unapologetic sex heats up the gay community portrayed in this complex yet understated film, and Spanish director Miguel Albaladejo doesn’t douse it once the title kid arrives. Pedro (José Luis García Pérez), a dentist who fills more than cavities, grudgingly curtails his cruising when his hippie sister Violeta (Elvira Lindo) leaves her son (David Castillo) in his care and heads to India. Still, uncle and nephew bond quickly (and poignantly), and when news comes that Violeta has been detained on a drug charge, Pedro fights the boy’s pouchy, cognac-guzzling grandma (Empar Ferrer) for custody. Albaladejo offers no pat answers, only casual realism. He limns Pedro and his pack of Winnie-the-Pooh-bodied playmates as warm, supportive, and horny, and even the scheming granny isn’t all villain. And there’s no cutesy odd-couple shtick. Pérez and Castillo give honest, moving performances — a potent antidote to the occasional lapses into soapy melodrama. In Spanish with English subtitles. (99 minutes)
BY ALICIA POTTER
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