Felicidades

Lucho Bender's 2000 Argentine film tells three stories that touch each other on a Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires: a dentist trying to find a toy for his son, a writer unhappy with his life, and a doctor trying to approach a woman. The tone is black comedy; the gap between the happiness expected of Christmas and the actual state of the characters stands in every scene. Bender does not force the stories together in a finale, and that is the film's best quality. Gastón Pauls's performance is good. Its weakness is that the three lines are not of equal strength and the second falls behind the others. Who it's for: viewers who like Argentine cinema and stories that intersect. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a warm holiday film, or who will find an unconnected structure scattered.