Fifty-two-year-old Juan Coco Villegas (Villegas) is adrift after he loses the gas attendant position he's held for decades. He tries to make ends meet by selling beautiful handmade knives, but he continues to struggle. One day, his luck takes a positive turn when he's repaid for helping a stranger with Bombón (Gregorio the Dog), a pedigreed pooch. Almost instantly things start looking up, and when Coco meets Walter (Donado), a show-dog trainer, the pair hatch a plan to use Bombón to sire a whole line of high class pups. All seems to be moving forward until it turns out that the seemingly perfect Bombón harbors some — ahem — performance issues.

Carlos Sorin's understated, neo-realist filmmaking (most of the performers here are non-actors; Villegas even served as Sorin's driver for a time before landing the starring role) perfectly complements the farcical elements of a plot that hinges on canine sexual desire. As in any dog picture, much depends on the lead pooch's performance, and Gregorio's Bombón is instantly memorable and charismatic. But even though Gregorio may own the title and get the biggest laughs, Sorin is careful to make sure that "Bombón: El Perro" is really about Villegas's very human struggles. You'll finish the film and chuckle over the comic resolution of Bombón's story, but what lingers in your memory is the affecting, universal tale of a proud man, down on his luck, regaining his dignity.