Whisky review

Anyone with a taste for the deadpan and droll should get a snifter of this Uruguayan comedy. Less whisky-sour than whisky-dour, Pablo Stoll and Juan Pablo Rebella tell the tale of Jacobo (Andrés Pazos), a sixtysomething sock-factory owner whose sad-sack life is jolted when his brother, Herman (Jorge Bolani), visits him for the unveiling of their late mother's headstone. Embarrassed to be a singleton, Jacobo asks an employee, the glum Marta (Mirella Pascual), to pose as his wife. As the trio go on holiday, a gentle comedy of late-blooming possibility ensues, hinting at Marta's long-repressed love of life. Replacing hangdog reticence with bone-dry humour, the discreet but suggestive performances - particularly Pascual's - gradually make sense of the film's title. "Whisky" is what the characters say when photographed, where we'd say "cheese". Expect this modest, beautifully modulated tale of tiny revelations to prompt a few surprise smiles of its own.