Superclassico

What a way to kick off the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival, with a film about an Argentinian futbol star who wins the heart of a Danish sports agent...much to the dismay of her devastated husband. He cries "Foul!" but she wants those divorce papers signed ASAP; so he locks up his Copenhagen wine shop, grabs their 16-year-old son and they dash off to Buenos Aires to try to talk her out of it.

This delightful comedy has so much to recommend it I will only mention a few things:

• The hilarious diatribe against marriage is a terrific monologue delivered by a bearded six-times-divorced vintner.
• That irascible maid is a widow: Her husband died in a Tango accident!
• Although English seems to be the lingua franca for everyone, the actors move painlessly between Spanish, English and Danish. I feel so inadequate....
• The soccer star who is engaged to our hero's wife is an ingenuous cutie. He is always upbeat, open-hearted and an amazing athlete. Oh, and he is quite often naked! No frontal nudity, only bactal. ...smile... And on him, it looks good. (I just made up that word.)

Everyone grows on you. There are no bad guys (even the muggers are polite) and we have a couple of favorites to root for. That's all I want from a film. Ole!