San Francisco Chronicle - December 10, 2004
Ruthe Stein at rstein@sfchronicle.com.

Some children have an innate resilience that shields them from an unstable home life. Their ability to bounce back is rich subject matter not just for social scientists but for filmmakers as well. Francois Truffaut mined it in "The 400 Blows" and so did Robert Benton in "Kramer vs. Kramer."

Spanish director Miguel Albaladejo creates another memorable comeback kid in "Bear Cub," which is finally getting an American release after a long run on the film festival circuit, where it was warmly received. Although not in the rarefied league of classics of the genre, the movie gets to you largely because of David Castillo's touching and at times heartbreaking performance as Bernardo, a fatherless 9-year-old being raised in the country by a hippie mother. The free-spirited Violeta (Elvira Lindo) seems oblivious to the fact that hippies are so over.

Off on a jaunt to India with a new boyfriend -- surely one in a string of them -- Violeta brings her son, wise beyond his years, to Madrid to stay with her brother Pedro (Jose Luis Garcia-Perez). Sweet-natured, caring and responsible in a way his sister never will be -- he's a dentist, for goodness sake -- Pedro is the sort of uncle any child would be lucky to have. Garcia-Perez inhabits the role with such joie de vivre, it makes you wish he was your relative -- he'd sure liven up those holiday dinners. As Pedro introduces Bernardo to the delights of the big city, the camera captures its wide avenues and old-world charm.

Albaladejo and co-screenwriter Salvador Garcia Ruiz take their film where few family dramas have dared to go. Pedro happens to be gay, HIV-positive and part of a subculture of gay men who call themselves bears because they let their body hair grow au natural and aren't obsessed with dieting or keeping toned. When they party together, it looks like a convention of Smokey Bears.

Is this an appropriate crowd for an impressionable 9-year-old to be hanging out with? Pedro himself has doubts and drops his friends during the two weeks Violeta is supposed to be away. But then she gets into legal trouble in India, and it appears she may not be able to claim her son for a very long time.

"Bear Cub" raises complex issues about who is suited to be a substitute parent, further complicated by the sudden appearance of Bernardo's paternal grandmother, Teresa (the fiery Empar Ferrer, a sort of Spanish Olympia Dukakis). Although the boy hates her because of the terrible things she's said about his mother, Teresa insists he would be better off with her and resorts to blackmail to gain custody.

Hollywood tackled a similar subject in the Kate Hudson vehicle "Raising Helen." Its shallowness makes you appreciate even more what "Bear Cub" attempts to do. It doesn't always succeed. Matters get resolved too easily, and the ending feels tacked on. Still, the film's ambitions are laudable, and it manages to be touching, funny and true to life. It seems ungrateful to ask for anything more.

-- Advisory: This film contains sexual situations.

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